Vito Acconci, public places
Linda Shearer

AuthorShearer, Linda
Date

1988
Publisher

The Museum of Modern Art
ISBN

087070625X
Exhibition URL

www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2156
The Museum of Modern Art's exhibition history—
from our founding in 1929 to the present—isavailable online. It includes exhibition catalogues,
primary documents, installation views, and anindex of participating artists.

MoMA© 2017 The Museum of Modern Art

EUM OFART
LEL-IARY

'

' OF

HoMA
lif7k

Published in conjunction

with the exhibition"Vito Acconci: Public

Places," February 11 - May 3, 1988, directed by Linda Shearer,
Curator, Department

Modern Art, New YorkThe exhibition

Frederick

The Museum of Modern Art

Lily Auchincloss

Mrs. Wolfgang Schoenborn*

Edward Larrabee Barnes

Mrs. Constantine

William S. Paley

Celeste G. Bartos

Mrs. Bertram Smith

Chairman Emeritus

Sid Richardson

Jerry I. Speyer

Mrs. John D. Rockefeller

H.R.H. Prinz Franz von Bayern**of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum ofis supported in part by a generous grant from the

National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding has been
provided by the Coca-Cola Foundation,

the General Atlantic Cor

poration, the Ford Motor Company Fund, and the New York StateCouncil on the Arts.
The publication

has been funded by a grant from theContemporary

Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art.

3rd

M. Alger III

Richard E. Salomon

Trustees of

Bass

Mrs. Alfred R. Stern

President Emeritus

Gordon Bunshaft

Mrs. Donald B. Straus

David Rockefeller

Shirley C. Burden

Walter N. Thayer

ChairmanThomas S. Carroll*

R.L.B. Tobin

Mrs. Henry Ives Cobb

John B. Carter

Monroe Wheeler*

Vice Chairman

Marshall S. Cogan

Richard S. Zeisler

Donald B. Marron

Gianluigi Gabetti*Trustee Emeritus

President

Miss Lillian Gish* *Mrs. Frank Y. Larkin

Paul Gottlieb

Vice President

Agnes Gund

John Parkinson III

Mrs. Melville Wakeman Hall

Vice President and Treasurer

George Heard Hamilton** *Honorary

TrusteeEx Officio Trustees
Edward 1. Koch

Barbara Jakobson
Copyright © 1988 by The Museum of Modern Art

Sidney Janis* *Mayor of the City

Illustrations

Philip Johnsonof New Yorkand artist's writings © 1988 by Vito Acconci

Ronald S. Lauder

Harrison J. GoldinJohn L. Loeb*

Comptrollerof the

The Museum of Modern Art

Ranald H. Macdonald*City of New York

11 West 53 Street

David H. McAlpin* *Joann K. Phillips

New York, New York 10019

Dorothy C. Miller**President of The

J. Irwin Miller*

International Council

All rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalogue

Card Number 87-63134

ISBN 0-87070-625-X
Edited by James Leggio
Design and typography by Keith Godard of Works

Printed in the United States of America

Production by Daniel FrankType by Battipaglia,

Illustration

Bound by Sendor Bindery, New York

Landing (details of model). 1987

by Vito Acconci except: Brian Albert (Landing);

Philipp Scholz Rittermann
black-and-white(Proposal for Spanish Landing;and color); Chris Felker (portrait of Acconci)

S.I. Newhouse,

Jr.

Philip S. Niarchos

Inc., Long Island City, New York

Printed by Eastern Press, Inc., New Haven, Connecticut
All photographs

Sidamon-Eristol

on title page and last page: Proposal for Spanish

Richard E. Oldenburg
Peter G. Peterson
Gifford Phillips
John Rewald* *David Rockefeller,

Jr.

The Museum of Modern Art, New YorkFor almost two decades Vito Acconci has shocked,
and angered art audiences.

consistently

been among our most astute social critics,

He hasbut he has remained paradoxical.

His message is notand never has been straightforward

or easily definable.

Instead, he seeks a pluralizing
provocative

ambiguityof meaning whose

undercuts social and artistic

conventions.
Acconci

Vito Acconci: Public Places

is an interdisciplinary

the French philosopher,acknowledges,
disciplinary

12entertained,

has suggested

is a subversiveof an easy security."

Linda Shearer
with the collaboration
Lynn Zelevansky

one, upsetting

language,

sculpture,"the calm

may often speak

but most of thesedrawing,

categories—

or film — andoffer a familiar

starting

point. Deprived of eventhis frame of reference,viewers

may well feel insecure,even anxious.

of

Acconci

works at least fit into establishedsuch as painting,thereby

Roland Barthes,

that the idea of the interModern artworks

their own, very privatedifficultartist.

whose influence

Acconci

By eluding such conventional

categories,

imposes discomfort.

Born in 1940, Acconci
but in 1969 started

began his career as a poet,using photographs

words to record simple actions(Toe-Touch, 1969) and throwing

in addition tolike touching

his toesa ball (Throw, 1969). In

the early 1970s he used video and film together
words to document
manipulated

more ambitious

withworks in which hehis body. There is rage as well as comedy

in these pieces, which show Acconci,
gressor, struggling

againstacting as transsuch ineluctabletives as gender. For example,

imperain Conversions 1 (1970-71)

he burned the hair off his chest and then pulled athimself in "a futile attempt

to develop a woman's

breast."By 1971 he was mixing performance
installations.
instance

The notorious

with gallery

Seedbed (1972) was an earlyof this. The ramp under which Acconci layThis exhibition, focusing on the work of the last five years, includes major pieces of sculpture chosen to emphasize the increasingly public
nature of Vito Acconci's art. While the actual number of works involved is relatively small, the nature of the exhibition and the accompanying
publication required an effort that has been truly monumental.
Within the Museum, I must first thank William Rubin, Director of the Department of Painting and Sculpture, for his unqualified support ofthis undertaking from its inception over two years ago. The concern and advice of my good friends and colleagues in the department, Carolyn
Lanchner, who also provided invaluable help with the catalogue text, and Kynaston McShine, have been a constant source of encouragement.
The day-to-day preparation of the exhibition itself required an extraordinary range of talent and expertise. I would like to express mygratitude to Lynne Addison, for supervising the complicated shipping arrangements; to Jennifer Carlson, for dealing diligently with publicity;

Acknowledgments

to Lacy D. Doyle, for tireless efforts toward funding the project; to Janis Ekdahl, for thorough research; and to Betsy Jablow, for guidance ofall budgetary matters. Sue B. Dorn, Susan Jackson, Richard L. Palmer, James S. Snyder, and Philip Yenawine all willingly ventured into many
areas beyond conventional job descriptions. From the beginning, Jerome Neuner and Randal Reackhof were indispensable in working out
the daunting problems of production and installation.
The catalogue presented the very special challenge of trying to capture something of the spirit of Acconci's work. I am indebted to thedesigner, Keith Godard, for responding to the challenge with such sympathetic imagination. Within the Department of Publications, I
gratefully acknowledge the material contributions of Tim McDonough and Daniel Frank, both of whom oversaw the complexities of pro
duction with attentive skill. James Leggio edited the catalogue with a keen intelligence and an even keener wit, and I would like to thankhim for the great pleasure of working with him on this occasion.
Of all the individuals outside the Museum, I especially want to acknowledge Edward Batcheller, one of Acconci's designers and engineers.
He graciously and cheerfully accomplished miracles of untold skill and patience. Ron Ervolinoand Luis Vera, also responsible for the design
and fabrication of the three large pieces reconceived for this exhibition, have worked closely with the artist on the execution of many of his
sculptures; Vito joins me in thanking them both, along with John Tagiuri for his important contributions to the work. Together we both would
like to express our appreciation to David C. Walentas of Two Trees, Inc., and his associate, George Pastor, for the generous donation of work
space for constructing the pieces. Among the many people who were extremely helpful in preparing the exhibition, Gary Garrels, Rhona
Hoffman, Michael Klein, Liz Koury, Joyce Schwartz, Judith van Wagner, and Ealan Wingate deserve special mention.
Two individuals must be cited quite apart, for all that they have done to make this project both a pleasure and a reality. The first, of course, isVito Acconci himself. He responded to the inevitable pressures of such an exhibition with characteristic understanding and creative
intensity, making the experience of working with him not only enjoyable but genuinely exhilarating. The second is Lynn Zelevansky, who assis
ted me during every phase of preparing the exhibition and catalogue. A true friend and collaborator, she shared equally in every decision,
every problem, and every solution, doing so with enthusiasm, critical intelligence, and unfailing good humor. I remain profoundly in her debt.
On behalf of the Museum, I would like to express to the National Endowment for the Arts our deep appreciation of its timely and substantial
grant for this exhibition. The Coca-Cola Foundation, General Atlantic Corporation, the Ford Motor Company Fund, and the New York StateCouncil on the Arts each contributed additional support. The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art deserves our thanks
for funding this publication. Finally we are indebted to the lenders, especially two: Laura Donnelley and the Hillwood Art Gallery at the C.W.
Post Campus of Long Island University; their commitment went far toward making the exhibition possible.
L.S.

3

town

square,derivedis identified

with

11
eraction,"
both colonial
village

12

cus

bolic

the concept

and British,greens;in Lexington,
10

seats

squareare housed

rejected

the formal

power.

His Coca-Colasuggesting

a potentially

topiary
piece

dispersal

tor John Ford. Acconciof the Americanan "almost
provide

that
these

is drawnwithbuildings,

forartist.

are, in some ways,

Acconcirecentin fo

for theusually

have been purged

from hisin the last few years.

He says he stopped

me that as long as I was there

live, the work

get beyond

my own personality.

Whereasning I could

see my stuff as 'person

grownof power,

the film direc
andconquest

to him they express
Ford's films

structures,

as welland savage

the boundariesof the town

"I always

remember

there

are

and they are very much The
half-built

pans to the empty

landscape."
Althoughthe community

may fail, Acconci

loses sightof it as an ideal.

He appears

never

to have faithin6developelements

the shifthasof imperial

menof the artwork

Acconcithe wilderness

and then the camera

ideal and the notionorand their

You see thesewhereplantswhichadmires

iconic

place

with

we areopenly."Many of the confrontational

associatedwork"to public

where

performance

to Ford's romantic

the vision:

The Courthouse.

mindsThis town-squareis made upneed to have a home."

square,speak theirfor an employees'

settlers

West because

threatening

buildings,

placesa symbolgreatlyof frontierdesperate

half-built

is drawn

Garden of Columns

scene in My Darling Clementine where

Church,of Ford, Acconci

headquarters.

ry of the West just outside
constantly

originated.

ments, and help to explain

concepta model for Acconci's

as for his town

As has been saidor decentralizationthat Acconci

tales

our hopes and fears.

is more like a garden

area in a corporate

sentimental

free to confront

installation

garden,inflammatory

It is tellingare sym

Acconci's

cutouts.

which
can beof pure potential,

as a meetingin torso-shaped

sculptures,for int

to as "occasions

land, used bywithinno matterarenasTown Square for Workers, is esheights,

together,His recent

commonThe installationof different

peopleseen as publicback to a sim

in Atlanta,

subtitlednonhierarchical.

seating

harkens

this vision,

headquarters(1987; pp. 28-29),

of columns

he refers

more ideal form of community,

withfor Coca-Cola

Americanon the common

greensoff bringing

what the consequences.

the revolution

green was unowned,

all. In keeping

sentiallyThese

the dynamicor green,

Militias,

on various

gathered

where

the townpler, and seemingly
the village

trainedMassachusetts.

of the townships

commonof revolution.

the Minutemen

In addition,

wild,from the village

and body works

becausecreating"it seemed

meets

to

couldn't

in the begin
person,'was a kind of Minimalist

sculpture,

triggered by the unseen viewer

and his monologue,

above him andcarried on as the artist masturbated,
performance component.

1979 were devoted almost entirely
5

audio- or videotapes

eternal1974 andto the experience

turns out to be very confining to sit in.

an outsider, ansense of alienation

but inside, the pieceisof his work. If for Barthes

Politically,
position.

Acconci maintains

The viewer activatesa similarly

ambiguous

Instant House (1980; p. 8)

by sitting on a swing at the center of four panels thatof the Author,"

are like theater

has been sculpture

for Acconci,

It has been suggested

continues

toone, as titles andin the form of the commentaries

that the artist writes

his environmental

the artist never quite dies.

that the cramped

sculptures

positions

often demand from partic

ipants, and their close seating arrangements,
messageof imposed identityand "enforced

carry asociability."flats, lying on the floor. Pulleys attachedto the swing then raise the panels, which now become
walls that enclose the individual.

The interiors

walls are plasteredflags, but the person

operatingwith Americanof thethe work cannot see that the hammer andAcconci is no cynic and is possessed

sickle has also been raised, pasted on the exterior

even idealistic,

urge toward community.

the sculpture.

Seduced by a seemingly

innocentpiece

He may not believe that such an ideal is easily attainof playgroundequipment,

become,on oneable, but he doesn't ever give up on it, either. Although

hand, stooges in the home they have essentiallybuilt,

shift in his work accords with Barthes's well-known

he has been an important

influence

unawareessay "The Death of the Author" (1968), which asserts

he has not wholeheartedly

endorsed the vision of

the creative primacy of the reader over the author.

fragmentation,

In his early work, Acconci had made himself the focus;

poststructuralist

Nevertheless,Since 1974, Acconci has absented

his physicalperperhaps of an increasing

concern with the viewer, as opposed to the artist.

meaning emanated exclusively
embraced the RomanticThisof a genuine,

postmodern

from him. He had

Acconci's work has matured,it has become insteadtask of the audience to continuallytheory, that characterizes

in individual

thedefine and redefine

a communitythat characterizeof the paradoxes

his art. Acconci

Nonetheless, just as Acconci appears
ceptible to such a theoreticalit. Despite his increasing

analysis,deference

meaning,

most sus
he slips out ofplays with this irresto the viewerasa source of power, Acconci never denies his own sub
jectivity, or relinquishes

his prerogatives.

He believes

holds special

partly inspiring his use, in many sculptures,of the "house" motif. In Acconci'sfilled with often contradictoryeyes, the house isassociations— private on

conventions.

compelled to make art that "takes

a jab." He says, "1shelter, protection,

Home represents

and sanctuary,

the placenever to really return. But it is also restrictive.
as an idealized

leave,

Although,vision, he yearns for home, he canin any relation-never quite accept

the parentalyship that doesn't cause trouble for me and potentiallywhich he perceives

to be repressive.

9
4

for another person."chaletof Houses Up the Wall (1985; pp. 6-7)

really don't know how to be interested

In his attempt

to rid himself,5architecture

authority

it implies,

Thus, the Swiss

neutralizing

institutions.

The

his reluctanceto adopt an ideologi

cal orthodoxy.

It also manifests

the acknowledged

influenceof the architect

Robert Venturi, who favors"signage"over modernist

form because

denotive

communication."

Las Vegas, architecturewith the facade

it is "explicit,

Venturi observes that, inand signs are often combined,of a casino acting as one big sign. He

asks, "Is the sign the building or the building the sign?,"a question

equally pertinent

through architectural

where we grow up, and which we must ultimately

feelingof politicalsym

piece indicatesture, Acconci is also impelled

into existing political systems.

himself in opposition to social expectations,languageofpropaganda.

bols of the USSR and USA interchangeable,

Venturi,

it is the role of the artist to throw a monkey wrench
placesin spreading

the inside, public on the outside — which are evoked

security,

He continuallyof their complicity

the symbolicmuch

and fear of the conformity

olution. The idea of home, for example,

its meaning.

andAcconci works, of both

imposes is typicalparticipants

On the other hand, Acconci renders the nationalart.

genuine belief in community

But ason younger artists,

derived largely from structuralist

The presence,

image of the artist as solitary

rebel, an aspect of the cult of individuality.

3

essential

The resulting

has a quaint, inviting coziness,"the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the deathplay a role, but only a subordinate

son from his work, evidence8

he remains an antagonist,
wanderer.

con-

while

for most of his pieces.

7of social and aestheticofor sculpture,alone. In this more recent work, language

6

theto the mixture

with installationin the 1980s his major concern

ventions,

constituted

The years between

and us, of the constraints

to Instant House. Drawn, liketo the forms of vernacular

Americanarchitecby the history thatshaped them.
Acconci

has an abiding interest

town square. He aspires to createin the notion of thewhat is termed"public art." Unique to him is his interpretation
word public as conveyingof the"the notion of a kind of town

square, the notion of a kind of discussion
ment place, start-a-revolution

place."

place, argu

In America,thework. Accordingwith anxiety,15

to Jacques

Derrida, play is associatedin meaning

they generate.

in an activity

usually deemed dangerous

perverse:

he tailed strangers,

until they entered

he

or
a

place he could not go. But when the artist docu

mented this activity

and shamelessly

displayedhisdocumentation

in a gallery context,of the meaningof the recorded acts, as well as of words

like "danger"and "perversity,"

our understanding

began to destabilize.

Although there is a manipulativeside to Acconci's

games, he is also playful in the traditionalof his works correspondto childhood

leader." Broadjump 71 (1971) simulatedsense. Many

and adult games

and sports: Following Piece corresponded

to "follow thea real contest

pageant.

inviting men to compete

Acconcitrack-and-away with a "broad,"

his choice of one of two women whose pictures
prominentin the installation.

Acconci

terms "self-erecting

players")

were

In the realm of whatarchitecture,"(1981) requires that four viewers

Peeling House

cooperatein order to reveal the interior(like "team(inner meaning)of the work.
Acconci's

games were originally

acted out byhimself and perhaps a few others in small, restrictive
enclosures(closets,

photographs

basements,

within the confines ofand video and film frames).

Some ofthese spaces have the quality of confessionals,
confession

is anotherpersistentandtheme in Acconci'swork. In Untitled Project for Pier 17 (1971), Acconci
betweenspent

1:00 and 2:00 a.m., every night for a month,at an abandonedpier. Anyone who met him there heard

a secret which, if revealed,

would cause the artist

embarrassment

Acconcior difficulty.

only by exposing

seems to feel thatthe worst, the most sadistic,

most sexist aspects

or theof himself will those elements
confessionalbepurged. Today Acconci's

private,have been transformed

into public games, acted out by

strangersin large, playground-like

activities

spaces.

As he has moved from the internalized
identified

psychodramawith the early work to this involvement

withpublic accessibility,

the role and image of the humanbody have persisted

as leitmotifs.

has been the theorist

cited the physicalseventeenth
stituted

Of interest

Michel Foucault'sof the body as a primary metaphor'
1

City, home

acted as MC,

at the traditional

field event. The winner walked

and tension

In Following Piece (1969), for example,

engagedprivateAcconci toys with shifts

and the sense of instability

prize. It took place in Atlanticof the Miss America

since it implies that the world does nothave a stable, fixed structure.

with an actual

presence

to Acconc

identification

for power. Foucaultof the king's body in the

century, and the idea of a social body con

through a universality

century, as indicatingof wills in the nineteenth

the significanceof this concept.

gradually

1 came to realize it was 'art viewer

star.' 1 had always
art as religion,or art as sacred object.

was from a kind of psychological13

self."

meets art

My shift, then,self to a sociological

After 1974, his gravelly, sinister voice remained

as a vestigeof his physical person; in his audio pieces

from the mid- and late seventies,
seemed to envelop the viewer
But now, his "presence"
Languagehave become dialogues.

Private has become public.

been against this notion of cult, orand delimit

is totallyitself, so critical

his disembodied

voice

space.

but all of Acconci's

work is of a piece, and this lastphase is a wholly logical,
Humor, althoughtent element

work — asrarely discussed,

obscenerecent works attemptcated less abrasively,

messagesare communiout of respect for the expecta

tions of a wider audience,

the general public. TVansitory

installations

have given way to sculpturalenvironments

for sustained

objects

public use. Monologues

andhas been a persis
recallwit of the late stand-up comic

as with Bruce, what some saw as

poetry, as sound, as visual signifier — is now gone too,Today, his still-aggressive

development.

Lenny Bruce, as does Acconci's choosing to behave asa transgressor;

exceptin punning titles.

albeit distinct,

in his work. His early monologues

the blunt, aggressive

absent from his work.

to his earlier

These changes seem like sharp breaks with the past,

was meant as social satire.

such earlier

Few of Acconci's

the sheer preposterousness

pieces as Trappings (1971), whereinofhetalked to his penis, which was dressed in doll clothes,and Gang-Bang (1980; p. 9), in which huge inflated

penisesmounted on the roofs of cars chased an inflated

breastthrough Spoleto,

Italy. His public constructionsof theeighties

a darker sense of folly. In Sexopath

bespeak(Parting of the Ways) (1985; pp. 10-11), a clothed figure thatis half man and half woman is split by a walkway.
a sensibility

that swings from adolescent

deeply sinistertohumor. Face of the Earth (1984; pp. 26-27)

is at once a good-natured

jack-o'-lantern

sit in and on and a frighteningly
tesque skull, with viewers
14This isslapstickthat we canmonumental

and groreduced to ants and worms

that crawl in and out of its empty sockets.
The threatening

and outrageous

humor have been tolerated,aspectsof Acconci's

which was emphaticallynot the case with Bruce. Acconci has been sheltered
the art world — a world that has fascinatedhim because,though it has its own fairly rigid set of rules, it lacks
many traditional

restrictions.

works were, in fact, fosteredapparently

His classic

performanceby the art community,

to satisfy its need for a show of rebellion.

Game-playing,manipulation,with its implications

is anotherpersistentbyof both fun andtheme in Acconci's

Less controlling_
like Claim (1971), in which a blindfoldeda basement,

threatening

Acconci

sat inAcconci

people with two lead pipes

and a crowbar, had been transformed

into objects that,than earlier works, Room Dividers was astep toward an involvementwith public space. For

public space was to become,by definition,

urban space, removed from the context

of an art gallery

by opening up and closing down, defined the viewer's

or museum. The Peoplemobile (1979; p. 14), which con

relationshipto him- or herself, to others, and to thesisted of a flatbed truck that traveledsurrounding

environment.

Acconci was no longer acting

Holland, is an earlier work that manifests

the madman,haranguingor lecturing

artist's current concerns.

he continued

the audience,

to exert his control by insisting

work hard to uncover a work's meaning,pulatingsocial dynamics

but

the viewer

and by mani

through the work. In pieces

to five cities inmany of theThis piece involved theEuropean version of his archetypal

Americanmeeting

place, as the truck parked for three days in the town
square of each city. Acconci activatedthese townsuch as Community House (1981), one person had thesquares in an astonishingly

capacity

to trap another inside the work. Anyone who

different

enteredthe piece had to trust that anotherwere formed by steel panels carried on the truck. For

reactivate

the sculpture

Somewhat

person would

structures

provocative(benches,way. Each day

cubicles,

tables,chairs)three hours each day, Acconci's rather menacing

and let him or her out.

surprisingly, in light of the controlling

voice

hauntingly

intoned phrases in English and Dutch thatalternately

threatened

and welcomed

terrorists:

elements that had always been essential to his work,
Acconci began to worry that he was victimizing
people by insisting they activate

his sculptures.

He

was also troubled by mechanicalbreakdowns,

which

rendered a full appreciationof a work impossible.

DAMES EN HER ENIS there a TERRORISTin the CROWD. . .
IS ER EEN TERRORISTONDER U-

LAdies and GENTLEmen.
..
DAMES EN HER ENI have COME for your T ER ROR ists . . .

RoomDividers (1982; p. 13) first hinted at the artist's dissatis
faction with work that aggressively

sought to control

TE VINDENWA l Ln

the interactionj,of several viewers. Only one person isme .1 c & n l uu

STRAIGHT

required to operate it, and the only action needed isRECHT

sit youri ilia i\ Ux< isiin the EYE. . .
IN DE OGEN KIJKEN-

the simple movement offwalls, which slide like patio—

doors. Room Dividers eloquently, but didactically,—

dates Acconci's developing concern with creating

WELKOM,

WELKOM-architectural

WELKOM,TERR OR IS T EN -eluci

(Dax i)spaces that can be peopled or inhabited,

and which provide the opportunity for people to gather
and interact

more autonomously.

It constitutes

T ER R OR ists . . .
VAL AAN, T ER R OR IS T EN I PROMise
you:THIS time we're
R EADy for you. . .
IK VERZEKERUrDEZE KEEPSTAAN WE VOOR U KLAARBANG your HEADS against our
WALL. . .
RETTK TE HOOFn T EG ENONZE MUUR AAN-

his

H

most graphic involvement—

But as with all of Acconci's work, the piece creates aHsense of disorientation,H

not really comfortablewith the division of space.

confusion, and unease. We arewith constantly

shifting spaces.

10

1

17

i
i

Almost from the beginning,

Acconci used his bodyand the bodies of others as instruments
the mechanisms
for flouting
rageouslyof a male-dominatedits taboos.
caricatures

The two women,

exposes,

culture,andBroadjump 71, for example,out

the game of male prerogative.

as mere silent images,

mercy of a set of rules permitting
his fantasies

for revealingat their expense.

how a phallocentric

are put at thea man to live out

Acconci
society

the New York disco. The mirror stage, according
Jacques

Lacan, representsof the concept"I." At this stage the child, frustrated

with its limited

motor capacities,

believes

to be more perfectthan itself.

struggle

image and self-image;

betweenits likenessSo begins the lifelong
and the earlyfight for control over oneself also foreshadows

mimics,and sostruggle for power over one's environment.

represents

womenin the forms of parts of dismembereda later

The mirrors

bodies serve as— as passive; the evidence,

remindersof the underlying

not the source, of power.

violenceof these struggles.

In later works, images oftothe child's first articulation

Bodies in the Park (1985; p. 12)

the human body often func

makes this violencetion as actual

bodies andexplicit.

photographsof bodies do in

more

Its vine-covered

figures function

as high-style

Broadjump 71. For example,

lawn furniture

but can seem,

mirrors in the shape of bodyfor an instant,like camou

parts are an important

flaged corpses.

ele

ment in Palladium UndergroundIn addition to the human(Garden of Bodies) (1986; p. 11),body itself, it is the spaces

the large, complex,that the body occupies,

cave-likeseating

structure

installedin the basement

their boundaries,

currentlyofcern Acconci.

andwhich con

By the late

modates

it. The piece continues

left off, confoundingmns

where The Peoplemobile

architecture

the stairs, making it integral

with furniture^ln

Acconci,
meeting

to the architecture.

of"The table and chair was a kind of community

ing part of the architecturealmost becoming

becom-and in turn, a person thenpart of the architecture

as he used it"

was of special interest.

Hi

viewers

are situated,changes depending
and whether

on where

they are seated or

standing.

In this way, it is a physical realization

conceptof play: it makes visible the shifting meaningof signs. In the rooms of the house, relativelyof theneutralREVOLUTION,SOLDIER/GUERRILLA,

evolution

two permanent

They are installed

one position the more neutral words can be read, fromones. The Artparkso far from the city, set Acconci to thinking
origins of suburbs. Characteristically,
them as "a way of getting
because- .

about thethe artist sees

_*

U.tk

the illogical.anraccinn

permeatestructureof Sub-Urb, a piece which expresses

benignAcconci'sof those in power who control

Although he has received

relatively

sions, Acconci's interestin the public nature of art is

profound. This exhibitionof recent works focuses on

a conventional

few public commis

three pieces that defy

gallery space. House of Cars (1983),

Bad

Dream Housed 984), and Face of the Earth (1984) are out
door sculpturesintended for permanent

in Atlanta

Las Cruces,

the smallest

as a prototype

piece inthe exhibition,functioned

public project,

Proposal for Spanish Landing (1987), repre

for anothersented here by a model.
Acconci

resists monumentality

authoritarian

the verticalof scale, seeing as

extensionof monuments

may in part accountthat

towartfor the fact that

more of his works have not found permanent

homes.

Acconcito lastis not interested

in objects

forever. He tends to measuredesignedtime in terms of a human

life. He has proposed that public art be made of"materials

that people are used to, materials

nary house-buildingthat mostmaterials,

furniture-making

mate

an ordinary house lasts." He even suggests that his
work can be restored
will be restored

sculptures

bringing together

State University,

Landing (1986-87),

future time."

our destinies.

that concern,

headquarters

rials. Public art might be meant to last only so long as

andand seemingly

to date.

people have already taken into their own hands: ordi-

people out of the cities,

revolution

ideas on the authority
18

site,

once people are in the cities, the revolution.. _.

in the exhibition,commissions

at Coca-Cola

and at New Mexico

permanence,/

FATHER/PATRICIDE^From

another the more provocativein the Groun(1986; p. 16), which is not represented
are Acconci's(Town ^

dwarf the viewer. This, coupled with his attitude

words that are painted on the walls are paired withwords that express darker associations:situations.

for this exhibition.

Workers) (1987). It and H

respectively.
Sub-Urb's message

in temporary

Also on display is a model for Garden of Colu
Square fForplace, '^but "the notion of the furniture

been installed

New versions are being constructed

the newer work, a chair was built into the underside

or
ouse
d

have previously

display that"with the understanding

with the materials
It is inevitablethat itand methods of athat as Acconci remakes

for this exhibition,

he will change them,and that his more recent work, current thinking,the demands

andof the Museum's space will affect theirrevisions.
The exhibition

also includes

Acconci's

1983 Propos

for a Playground (p. 21). Swings, slides, seesaws,
jungle gym are all housed in oversize
huge baseballcatcher'smask, footballandsports gear: aand hockey

The Peoplemobile was a pivotal piece. Its steel panels,
with their shifting configurations,current

involvement

anticipatedwith architecturalelements

viewed from another angle, also function
addition,

the work generates

a dangerous

subject,

Acconci's

anxietythat,

as furniture.

Inby toying withand introducing

attitudes

andimages (a masked truck) which suggest the more vio
lent historicalevents associatedwith European town

squares, from the French Revolution
work subverts

ideas of civilizedwith an establishedAcconci's
relateddiscourse

settings

the wayof architecturein undercutting

is directly

accepted*

and(town square, recording

suburban home, park memorial)
his interest

connected

social venue. It illustrates

use of the conventions

culturalto World War II. The

studio,linked tonotions of orderIand authority.
Criticalto this development,

sibly public sculpture
for Artpark

Acconci's first osten

was Sub-Urb (1983; p. 15), createdin Lewiston,

New York. The artist took astandard

house, approximately

a hundred feet long, andinverted

it so that its peaked roof was underground.

Access to the house was through the floor, which wasmade of sliding panels, like those found in Room Dividers.
In this piece, the panels were horizontal

and level withthe ground. Once one of the panels was moved to thecenter, a hidden stairway

was revealed,

access to the undergroundstructure.

permitting

While Acconci

feels the piece failed on a number of counts (the lettersstenciledon the panels, which createddifferent

as the panels shifted positions,

could be properly

deciphered

in low-flying

only by passengers

Sub-Urb signaled the direction

words

aircraft),that the artist explores

to this day.

between(to sit, to interact),
e

11

\V

ft*

a >

' #

Sub-Urb was seminal
relationshipVA*

in the way it establishedthe human body, its special
and the architecture

a
needs

JSP

that accom^Yphysical engagementwith the work, which is meant to

be climbed on and sat in. House of Cars becomesstatementaon urban survival.

For Acconci, Bad Dream House (pp. 24-25),

first shown

like an architectural

jigsaw puzzle (in the new version,

more like a kaleidoscope).

The rooms are interconnected,

places,places of desire." He is concerned

image of what we desire is constructed

as in House of Cars, but here in moving through the piece

expectations.

we experienceoriented

the distinction

between interior and ex

Acconcibelieves

with how thefrom social

that, in our consumer-

society, we are all expected

to want our own

terior being turned inside out. Imbued with Acconci'shome, our own car. These are "conventionallyized many of the ideas latent in House of Cars. "It had tocharacteristic

and conventionally.

do with pieces being composed of certain conventions

Escher drawing in three dimensions.

at Zone in Springfield,

Massachusetts,that we all know, but perverted,
twisted,in 1984, crystal-the conventions

turned upside down, which is literally what

contradictions,

Of course, viewers

recognize

betweenbut in this piece,

in the language

desire that it speaks. With its tastelessfacing,andaffordable

Bad Dream House, and the conventional

dreamedconventions

evoke other associations

that so intrigue

that are sociologicalupside down and side by side, with a third, greenhouse-

psychological.

type building also inverted and nestled on top. It ishouses to which it refers, are what he calls "dreamofartificial-brickit might be a bad dream for the upwardly

mobile, but it also fits the long-familiar

traditional

placedby one person." But Bad

Acconcithe architectural

wooden structures,. .owned

Dream House is quite ambiguous

the difference

a "real" house and this perversion,

happens in Bad Dream House " The work consists of two
peaked-roof

the piece is like an M.C.

desirable

suburban tract-house

image of thethat is still perhaps

of by many people of ordinary means. In addition, it is, to say the least, precariously
a manner threateningly

constructed,

like a nightmare.

inHouse of Cars,

with its pun on "house of cards," is equally precarious.
Both works provoke us into recognizing

the instabilityof a world we ordinarilyand solid.

Acconci

stresses(and, by extension,see as constant

how architecturalconventions

other sets of conventions)

our way of seeing things around accepted
He also illuminates

the psychologicalmakes us cling to these conventions.
symbolic
artist.

ventionssocial norms

mechanismin Acconci'sof domestic
sculptureto thearchitectural
releases

security

house,

with our past, for a childhood

which is longed for but unattainable

in an uncertain

conin us theforces of desire, not just to possess the literalbut for reunification

that

Bad Dream House iof the "home" that is so important

The presence

organizeworld. Acconci

confronts

by adults

us with our

suppressed

desires; then, by making the houses so

precarious,by undermining

scores both the impossibility
for security

their structure,

he underof regainingthat longed-

and his own ambivalence

toward the very

Videa of home.
In a number of works, by encouraging
Acconci

14

holds open the possibility

interactionthat community

-

I

/'/
w
y
b

*

nMINinhelmets.

At normal size, these objects function

tively; blown up they resemble
deed, to some, high-conflict

,S°*
xi
(,/ ^

v

w

I

y

c<^

* -*Vv*
^v

*ft"^
'

.ft*'

>

„ c^

v»e

e*^ rWy\V

G°

proteccages and prisons. In

sports like hockey andfootballalready

seem repressive

and militaristic.

theless,

their status, their cultural

initiation

rites, makes criticizing

Neverrole as adolescentof Cars (pp. 22-23),

termedplaygrounds.

House

by Acconci a "usable housing

unit" and a "housing complex,"is composedof automobiles that have been gutted and then welded together.
The ground level and second story are connectedbystairs. The interiorof each car, painted a single color,

to criticizing

contains

realigned

car seats, tables,

our culture itself. This is what Acconci has done. In

mattress.

In its original incarnation,

painting

the enlargedof four batteredoutragedthe inviolability

represent,

and travestiedthese ail-Americanbonding rituals.

activities

tantamountmask and helmets

builders,

the violence

Chronologically,
between13

mes

to prospective

who have remained
surfacesports theyof such male-

subliminal

effectively

work. In spite of its appealing
this project remains

pink, he hasof the competitive

It seems Acconci'ssages have communicatedplaygroundthe value placed on

which can be seen as metaphoricalwary of thecheerfulness,playgroundproposal falls

House of Cars and Bad Dream House, both ofand was situatedthe piece consisted

that had been painted
in one of San Francisco'slots. Inspired by the Australian

director

GeorgeMiller's movies Road Warrior and Mad Max, House of Cars
shared their sense of makeshift
this case, urban) collapse.
piece includes
context

unrealized.
Acconci's

aluminum,vacantautomobiles

shelves, even aliving amid social (inThe current version of thissix cars. However

may modify its meaning,much the museum
the work should retain

the essential

quality of a derelict

for habitationis communicatedrefuge. That potential

through the viewer'sembroilednin a citywide

appropriatenessairport.
'^8BW6lle*Sy;«!H^

controversy

over the sculpture'sfor its site, between

the ocea

The work would include sailboats

embeddedon the water, surroundedby airplane-shaped

With its proximity"islands."

the piece has been interpreted

sculpture

19
<V
V

A0

,Vt

they connect

#

x

a*
* '

"£
> V>°£•'F,*A*?f° V' c* ft .,# <*><^bv

are the elements

to theas a cruel jokea plane crash — but for Acconci the elements

.<yw

in

the grassy site, as if floating

airport,vv

and thof theof the neighborhood,

the work to its surroundings.

would be "occasions

for activity."

with sand, anotherwould containthe third would be for climbing.

andThe airplane

One would be filled;;

a wading pool, andThe sailboats—

aredesigned for seating.
While it is tempting

to attributethe troubles

sur-rounding the San Diego project to the artist's provocativenessmight help compensate

for the loss of childhood

security. While House of Cars and Bad Dream House adhere
closely to the idea of a private dwelling,
20

Face of the Earth(pp. 26-27),

along with other landscape-related

a mini-park,

and therefore

pieces, isa public, community-oriented

entity from the start. Face of the Earth functions

as a

It is typical of his paradoxical,

even perverse

thinking,

then, that in its indoor incarnation,

Face ofpublic-art

commissions

the Earth should be stone and real grass instead ofsimilar difficulties,

Astroturf.

Art News article

Juxtaposed

against a natural environment

Art?," reads like a litany of aborted

artificiality,

volved ranged from Robert Motherwell

making the disjunction

betweenart and

betweenNorth Carolina,

and the mouth accommodates

gallery space inverts the sense of artificiality.

inception,

From its initial

the work has been almost continuously

view, first at Zone in Springfield,

then in New York's

City Hall Park, and finally in Laumeier
St. Louis. Its Astroturf
long exposureon

SculpturePark,

surface has suffered from thisto the elements.

The piece is no longer

Indoors, House of Cars, Bad Dream House, and Face of
the Earth are like hothouse plants, uprooted from theirnaturalplace, and isolated

in the rarefied

of a museum. This incongruity
createa situation

the natural elements

as Astroturf
is vulnerable

is perishable

and the pristine white
But just

in the outdoors, real grass

inside.

Landing (p. 30) has the same kind of inside-out

absur

in which no one is ever entirely

corn-

Currently,

a heatedover a sculptureens the very existenceaside one percent

projects.

Artists

to Claes Oldenb

debate in Charlot

by Joel Shapiro threatof the local policy of settingof construction

budgets for public a

public art is always

controversial.

Under authoritarian

dity. Rather than keeping out the water, three colliding

regimes there are no debatesaluminum rowboats

work for a site, "but when the regimes are overthrown,

actuallyboats are bracketedting immediately

house large goldfish, whichwater beneath the seats. The

by plants, evoking a lakesidecontradictedsetby the gallery enclosure.

so are their statues,
Rhodesia

over the suitabilityof aas we saw in Prague, Teheran, an

in recent times."

years of the Florentine

Elsen notes that in the las

republic,

Michelangelo's

David

was stoned on its way to its site in front of the Palazzatmospherefits Acconci's need toAn

Albert Elsen has pointed out that in democracies,

swim around in deep-blueon view outdoors, but there are plans to rebuild it.

around the country have hadsome of them highly publicized.

outdoors, the Astroturf took on an exaggerated

one person, the nose seats two sitting face-to-face,
several.

it is also true thatfrom 1982, "Does the Public Want Publ

ordinary reality sharper. In the Museum, the contrast

The eyes each seat

will not be repressed,

his stated desire notwithstanding),

and Frank Stella.

park bench, a seating arrangement.

21

fortable.

(a trait that apparently

Acconci won a public-art

commissionin San Diegowith his Proposal for Spanish Landing (p. 31) but is still

16

Vecchio.
Nevertheless,it seems that during the nineteenth

15Notesxt
Aesthetic
ntisicundito
cconci:atrix
7,
For fuller documentationof Acconci's career, see the cataloguesof his two retrospective

exhibitions:

Judith Russi Kirshner's Vito

Acconci: A Retrospective, 1969-1980 (Chicago: Museum of Contempo

recto
rs
ecti
ons,

rary Art, 1980) succinctly

traces the artist's development

1979, giving a particularly

helpful account of the early body andperformanceworks; Ron Onorato's comprehensive

through

Vito Acconci:

eic
sag
u
3

Domestic Trappings (La Jolla, Calif.: La Jolla Museum of Contempo

ext,
s,
8.

rary Art, 1987) marshals extensive
information.

4
sel hor,
pabibliographicaland exhibitionottengrchitectural
ITower/Knowledge:bid.,

Pantheon, 1980), p.55.

noted, all quotations of Vito
Acconci are from this interview.
10 Flannah Arendt, On Revolution(Plarmondsworth, England:
Penguin, 1965), pp. 165-67.
11 Vito Acconci, commentary on

17 For a feminist reading of
Jacques Lacan's interpretationof the mirror stage, and a consideration of its relation tovisual imagery, see Laura
Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure andin the Expanded Field," in Ha
Foster, ed., The A(Port Townsend, Wash.: Bay
Press, 1983), p.33.
23 Elsen, Rodin's "Thinker,"p.112.
24 Plawthorne, "Does the Public

1969-1980, exhibition catalogue(Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1980), p.15.
3 George Melrod, "Face to Face,"Eye, October 1986, p.22.
4 Jan Avgikos, "Interview: Vito

Maze Table, publishedin Andrea Miller-Keller, VAM
8 brochure (Hartford: Wadsworth
Atheneum, 1985).
12 Andrew Sarris, The American

Narrative Cinema," a Kate
Linker, "Representation and
Sexuality," both in Brian Wallis,ed., Art After Modernism:
Rethinking Representation(New York: The New Museum

Want Public Sculpture?," p.61
25 Acconci, "Public Space," p.2
26 Calvin Tomkins, "Like Water i
Glass," The New Yorker, Mar
21, 1983, p.92.
27 Ibid., p.97.

Acconci, Art Papers,
January/February 1981, p.3.
5 Roland Barthes, "The Death ofCinema: Di
andDir
1929-1968 (NewYork: Dutton, 1968), p.45.

of Contemporary Art, 1984).
18 Vito Acconci, "Public Space(The Street and the Park)," in—M

1 Ellen Schwartz, '"I Want to Put

Vito Acconci: The House

29 Acconci, "Public Space," p.2—T
p.148.
6 Kate Linker, "Vito Acconci's

the Viewer on Shaky Ground,'"
Art New Summer 1981, p.9

and Furnishings as Social
Metaphor, p.20.

30 Klaus Kertess, "In Nature's
Shadow," Artdn America"

1 Michael Brenson, "What's New
Around Town in Outdoor
Sculpture?," New York Times,
July 19, 1985, p.C23.
15 Jacques Derrida, "Structure,

19 Priscilla Lister Schupp,"Acconci Doesn't Like Airplanes
Crashing Either," San Diego
Daily Transcript, June 5, 1987,
p.4A.

September 1987, p.58.
31 Acconci, "Public Space," p.2

Sign and Play in the Discourse

20 Don Hawthorne, "Does the Pub-

the Author," in Im

Address to the Viewer or, How
Do I Work This Chair?," in Vito
Acconci: The Hou and Furnishings as Socia Met
exhibition catalogue (Tampa:
University of South Florida,ntearning

May 23, 1987. Unless otherwise

1 Roland Barthes, "From Work to
Text," in Image — M— Te(New York: Hill & Wang, 1977),
p.155.
2 Vito Acconci, "Conversions,"
in Judith Russi Kirshner, Vito
Acconci: A Retrospective,1986), p. 7
7 Robert Venturi, L

fromof the Human Sciences,"in Writing and Difference

Las Vegas: The For
Symbolism of A
Form (Cambridge, Mass.: M
Press, 1985), p.100.

(Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1978), p. 279.
16 Michel Foucault, "Body/
Power," in P

8 I
p. 73.
9 Interview with Linda Shearer,

Selected Interviews and Other
Writings, 1972-1977 (New York:lie Wa Public Sculpture?,"Art News, May 1982, p.56-63.
21 Albert E. Elsen, RodirVs"Thinker" and the Dilemmasof Modern Public Sculpture(New Haven, Conn.: Yale
University Press, 1985), p.112.
22~Rosalind E. Krauss, "Sculpture

28 Schupp, "Acconci Doesn't Li
Airplanes Crashing Either,"p.4A.

25 century there was a logic to public sculpture,
its commemorative

based onnature and the fact that it spoke

22 symbolically about the meaning

and use of its site.

With modernism, that logic faded. It had alreadyto do so in Rodin's time. Elsen suggests
cal outcry for and against

23 governments who would install modern art in public."
29
26 Modernist sculpture is largely self-referential,
representation.

It often demands of the viewer the knowledge
specific "language"

30

that is still foreign to most people.

Certainly these qualities

account

the hostility it engenders.
originated as ornament
century architecture,

as a symbol of authority,and vandalized.

A number of contemporary

for a good measure

off

or to alter it, but

For him, "Public art anticipatessions its own revolution

public place engulfs us both."public art is not new. Recently

should work together.

middle of a path in the park of the Kerguehennec

the artist's role.

andin southwest
disappear,

Artists have made related

professionals has now generally

improvedof outdoor work, the public remains

antagonistic

Time sometimes

Calder's La Grande Vitesse, createdthe quality
tohelps. Alexander

for Grand Rapids,

Michigan, in 1969, was hated when first installed,,

24 s since become a kind off symbol of the city.

yet
But

28as Acconci says, "The memory of public art is thethe monument

person, and stands on a pedestal

is bigger than aabove the level ofso weways to confront them. But for Acconciance, it's a demonstration.

of public taste."

Despite Acconci's

obvious similarities

to some othersin public art, his differences

may be more

to, years later."significant.

Prevailinga piece sited

becauseattitudesthat the sculpture

dictateand not simply "plunked
to a contemporary

down"
building,

off Face of the Earth indicates"can be placed almost anywhere

grass or on concrete),preferably

associations

This is Acconci's concept

with those
off an art meant tolast as long as an ordinary house. What he is proposing
as yet has no model unless it is planned obsolescence:and theedge of Acconci's

early work, it seems fair to argue

Acconci is notthat, in substance,

though he has changed he has

than the site is the situation,social and culturaldynamics

above considering

adjustments

situation,

Yet it can't be made off steel or bronze

of authoritariana quasi-permanent

Far more important

ticularmaterials.

we can come back(onin an urban space."

it generates.

It needs to exist the way acity street exists: this is somethinginterested

description

amonghave developed

works for decades,

decorum

but Acconci's

consultation

began totaken over by moss, ferns, and buttercups.

public art "can't just come and go, or else it's a perform

frequently

Although more effective

Estatethat "as a public artist, you have to work within theor ornament"plop art."

placed in the

Britanny, almost immediately

Working for the public sector means getting rid ofas decoration

ignoring their environment,

pile of twigs and branches,in

Richard Long's

Scott Burton feel a need to redefine

Oftenfront of urban skyscrapers,

Impermanence

installed,

low-lyingarchitect well after the design was completed.

inagainst it."

In order to achievetosquating

its own history, it envi

both Armajani

location

sculptures

towardpatrons.

the desired unity with architecture,

for a specifictradition of domination:that artist

attitudecannot endear him to public-art

to be one in the other, like water in a glass. The

the outside off a modern building, it was chosen by thechose badly. Large modernist

Acconci's ambivalentarchitecture,rid of the artist's ego. Scott Burton believes

issues, architects

For example,

not meant to enhance

gettingforin order to fit in with the public's sense ofThat ideal is foreign to his vision of thepermanence

But twentieth-

was considered

Armajani,says, "Our work is

He believes

by Burton anddecorum.

Siah Armajani

to architecture.

to build a modernist

in the manner recommended

artist's role.

program inmyths about the artist. It means, to some extent,

the general public.
31
For a long time, if sculpture,

their aesthetic

certaintradition that would help make public art palatablemany public projects.

are addressing

public sculpture

27has offered little opportunity

earned the epithet

artists

expression

is seenIn addition,

largely devoid of ornamentation,

insensitive to sculptural

consultation,

terms of architecture.

and architect

off apublic sculpture,

withoutthese issues by redefining

The Thinker provides "a modeland spatial

Too often contemporary

imposed on a community

begun

that the critiof the dilemmas faced by those living under elected

and cut off from temporalpeople."to accommodate

art.

Despite those who miss the more confrontationala parand is doing so now in San Diego. He

remainedthe same. The obsessions — with private andpublic interaction,with contradiction,says, "I think public art should be public — it should takecontrol — continue.

His art is as extreme

a little bit of discussionme, if I'm chosen tosive as it has always been. His Romanticof the community.

artist's role, and his embrace

betweendo the piece, and some members
admittedly

am an outsider

and I might not know certain

things about habits and frames of mind here."
attitudeis in keeping with his communal

might, however, find it difficult

17

I

This

leanings.

to suppress personalHe

Acconci easily capablegoals. And perhaps,

authority,

vision of theof the paradoxical,of undercutting

andand subver

makehis own statedas he pursues his attempt

to breakinto the world of public art, he even remains his own
worst enemy. The rebel will not be suppressed.

1.The Escape from Art
The personwho chooses to do public art
might be considereda refugee,in flightfrom the gallery/museum
which has been
establishedas the proper occasionfor
art in our cultureat this time. Escapefrom the confinesof that space means
losing the privilegesof its laboratory
conditions:the luxury of consideringart
either as a systemof universals

terVito Acconci, 198520

or as a system of commodities. Abdicatingthe accustomedspace of art, thepublic artist declareshimself/herselfuninterestedin art questions,and nolonger involvedin the developmentof art as we've known it. Public art
revisesthe presentof art and conjecturesits future:a time when art might
be considerednot as a separablecategory,in its own arena and with its own
products,but as an atmosphereinstilled,almost secretly,within othercategoriesof life.
. Life on the Edge: Marginalityas the Cenof Public Art
Inside the gallery/museum,the artist functionsas the center of a parti
cular system;once outside that system, the artist is lost betweenworlds—

1^

HHI

Plates and Artist's Statements

The following section illustrates

all of the works in the exhibition.

Re-createdshowing, House of Cars, Bad Dream House, and Face of the Earth are represented
preliminary

drawings, as well as by photographs

The accompanying

statements

for thisby the artist'sof the original versions of the sculptures.

by Acconci, written specially for this catalogue,

the most recent phase of his work.

concern

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3. The InnocentBystanderand the Anxiety of Choice
When a person enters a gallery/museum,that person announceshimself/herself
as an art-viewer;the art-viewersubmits to the terms of the art arena, theart-vieweragrees to be a victim. Outside the gallery/museum,in a public
place, there is no art-viewer;there are only passers-by,with different

22

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historiesand varyingbiases,who haven't asked for art. Public art, in order
to exist in the world, agrees to certain social conventions,certain rules ofpeacefulco-existence;the public artist gives up the gallery artist'sprivilegof imposition. Using manners as a cover, public art can lie low; insteadof
attacking,public art insinuates.

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theartist'sposition,in our culture, is marginal. The public artist canturnthat marginalityto advantage. Forced, physically,off to the side,
the publicartist is asked to deal not with the buildingbut with the
sidewalk,not with the road but with the benchesat the side of the road,21

not with the city but with the bridgesbetweencities. Outsideand in between
centers,the public artist is under cover; public art functions,literally,
as a marginalnote; it tries to comment on, and contradict,the main bodyof the text of a culture.

ublicfareelisolatinga convention,exhibit that conventionas an icon that can t be
furtherbroken down, can't be analyzed. The operationof one conventionwith
and againstanother subvertsthe power that each conventionis a sign of.

5. Public Art and the P
W
An artist who enters public space enters politics. Public art, mixing inwith the other things of the world, either confirmsor subvertsthat world
and the power structurethat organizesit. The public artist can fall into24w

nventions
4-A Geometryof Co
The words "publicart" should be taken literally:on the one hand, a pieceis public in that it's usable, inhabitable— on the other hand, a piece ispublicin that its forms and images are conventions(like a house-form,

23

like an advertisingimage) that everyone,in a particularculture,knows as
a matter of habit. Conventionscan be subjectedto a set of mental opera
tions: one conventioncan be rotated,as if on a grid— two conventionscan
collidewith and interpenetrate
one another.... These operations,by

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the message within from all other messages.
Analysis ofthat message leads to action,away from the poster and out into the worldat-large.
But the two-dimensionalityof the poster confirms a mind/bodyseparation:
the mind might be influenced
by the poster and might then impel
the body to action,
but all the while the body is in a world of its own,

26

out of the poster'sreach— at any moment the body might rebel. The realpoliticalmessage is not in the poster but in the wall that supportsthe
poster,in the ground that supportsthe person who reads the poster. Thiswall and this floor define the proper arena for a radicalpublic art.

a double-bindsituation:subvertingthe dominantcultureat the same time
keeps that culture an open system— it allows that culture to revivifyand
keep itself going. A more efficientsubversion,then, might lie in con
firmingand re-confirmingthe elementsof a culture,so that the culture
has no breathingroom and will slowly die off. But this method of sub-version demands patience,cynicism,and a blind trust in evolution.
6. Rip Up the Posters,Dismantlethe Billboards
The appropriatemedium of politicalmessages is assumed to be the poster.
Its appropriatenesslies in its two-dimensionality:
the edges of them

8. The Two Traditionsof Public Art
The older traditionis that of the monument;the newer tradition,which is
fast becomingthe contemporarystandard,is street-and-parkfurniture. The
monumentasserts itself too much; it standsapart from its environmentand
over the heads of people; its message is— the individualis important,but
28

some individualsare more importantthan others. Street-and-parkfurniture,on the other hand, recedes too far into its environment,and plays up to thehabits of people; its message is— be programmed,be comfortable,there'sno
reason to change. Each traditionhas to be resistedon its own terms:(A) Bring the monumentdown to earth, where it can be entered and be overrun

7. Buildingas Nostalgia/Nostalgia
as ResistanceThe built environment,in an electronicage, is a throwbackto an industrial
era. In an age when quantitiesof places can be stored on a disc, the built
environmentoccupies too much space; it takes too much time to walk throughthe built environment,in an age when distant places can be broughthome on

27

television. Public art, as a gatheringplace for people, functionsas amodel of the city. By reinstatingthis model of another time, public art
restoresthe peopled places that lead to discussionsthat lead to argumentsthat lead to reconsiderations
that lead potentiallyto a revolution. In aworld of shoppingmalls, public art reinsertsthe town square.

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no attemptat camouflageto fit its surroundings.This kind of public
art can criticizefrom the outside,like a future-studies
scenario. (Thecontemporaryversionof the spaceshipis the park, which is set up as an
oasis inside the city, separatefrom the city. The park substitutes
greeneryfrom a past time for the spaceship'swhite of the future.)

10.Being Th
Thinkingfr th Insi Out
Being in the world means being encased in the world. Our habit of thinking
is: in order to analyze the world you have to step outside the world, jumpout of the world. This habit of thinking,and of talking,allows theconstructionof a self to exist (you "go out of yourself,"you "take your-30

am

by people (this makes the verticalhorizontal,and lays low the dominantmale principle). (B) Instead of providingfurniture,build somethingthat
people,using their own ingenuity,might make use of (ratherthan people
at the mercy of furniture,this is furnitureat the mercy of people).

29

9. Two Models for Public Art: The Curb and the Spaceship
The curb, or the lamppost,or the fire hydrant,goes almost unnoticed;it'sas if it's always been there. This kind of public art blends in with its
surroundings,and can criticizefrom within. The spaceshiplands in analien place; it revels in its look as if it came out of nowhere,it makes

self out of it"). But, taking yourselfout of the world, mentally,means
only a retreat from material conditions,on the one hand, and from people,
on the other. The implicationis that you can think only when you'realone, only when you withdraw into a meditationchamber. One functionof

31

public art is to re-imbeda person insidematerialconditionsand within
the company of other people; one functionof public art is to learn, andteach, a simultaneityof experienceand analysis;one functionof public
art is to undo the constructionof a self.