Vito Acconci - Hardcover

Linker, Kate

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0847816451 ISBN 13: 9780847816453

Publisher: Rizzoli, 1994

Examines the varied and provocative works of the influential artist, including his 1970s performance pieces and his lighthearted and sculpturally complex pieces of the 1980s

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Language Notes:

Text: Italian, English
Original Language: Spanish

From Booklist:

Linker, an independent critic whose work appears frequently in Artforum, does a commendable job of elucidating the concepts behind the varied but consistently provocative work of Vito Acconci, one of the most influential artists of the last 20 years. As Linker vividly describes Acconci's startling 1970s performance pieces, she explains how they relate to his ongoing effort to define the "nature of the self." Acconci's tactics include breaching the boundary between self and society, emphasizing the self as a repository for experience, and objectifying the body. His early works include documentation of the artist trying to catch a ball blindfolded, making marks in his flesh, and, in Seedbed, masturbating beneath a ramp on a gallery floor, an example of his willingness to takes puns to unsettling extremes. Acconci shocks his viewers to incite thought: he doesn't want empathy, he wants action. This desire for action inspired his more playful and sculpturally complex works during the 1980s, including his clever mobile units, "self-creating architecture," and the wonderfully disorienting Bad Dream House series. A philosophical confrontationist with a keen sense of the dramatic and the kinetic, Acconci has altered and expanded our perceptions of art and its role in our increasingly fractured culture. Donna Seaman

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