Sculpture Studio Spring 2010

Project 2: Kinetics and Interactivity
ARTIST RESEARCH

Vito Acconci

Vito Acconci, Undertone, 1973

The work of Vito Acconci is heavily involved with the realm of interactive art due to the fact that many of his works are crafting a dialogue between the artist and the viewer. Acconci’s dialogues/interactions with the viewer deal with ranging topics from body and self, public and private space and absence and presence (Arts Intermix). Many of his works take the form of stream of consciousness monologues mixed with per-formative actions, which gives off the feeling that he is vulnerable and protective at the same time as always trying to get into the viewer’s thoughts and psyche (Saltz). For example, in his piece Claim, Acconci sat in a basement, blindfolded and swinging a lead pipe at “intruders” while repeating threatening phrases at them. In another piece, Project for Pier 17, the artist stood at the end of a ruined NYC West Side pier confessing personal information to anyone who came to see him (Saltz). It works like these that Acconci uses to set up the body as a, “site for physical and psychological search for the self” (Arts Intermix). Yet it is also important to note that in these cases the work is really made through the connection and engagement (both physically and verbally) that is made between Acconci and the viewer – Acconci is attempting to understand himself better through these interactions/confrontations and at the same time the viewer is able to catch a glimpse of the nature of the artist.
     Another example of this interactive, artist-viewer connectivity can be seen in Acconci’s video piece, Undertone (1973). In this piece Acconci sits face down at the far end of a table with his hands underneath the table’s surface. He then begins to mutter and alternating between trying to convince himself that there is a girl underneath the table rubbing his thighs or that it is just his own hands rubbing his thighs. During the piece Acconci then switches to addressing the viewer saying, “I need you to keep your place at the head of the table. I need to know I can count on you” (Arts Intermix). The direct address to the audience works to “implicate” the viewer as a witness, voyeur and accomplice and engages them in an intimate relation to the artist (Arts Intermix).
     Vito Acconci’s work is interactive in the sense that there is an intense, sometimes perverse relationship formed between the artist and the viewer as a result of the work of art. Acconci’s performance and video pieces are not interactive in the same sense such as work by Mowry Baden, whose work is interactive in the sense that it makes your body physically aware of itself or of a bodily sensation in relation to an object. Acconci’s interactive work is not so much based around a specific thing, as it uses the “work” to make both parties (artist and viewer) vividly aware of each other. In thinking about his own work and the relation to the viewer, Acconci phrased the question, “…There are other people in the world – how do I concentrate on him/her, or how do I concentrate on you while you concentrate on me?” (designboom). A prime example of how Acconci’s work operates in this interactive, “event-like” manner would be his performance piece Seedbed (1972). In this piece Acconci laid underneath a ramp built in a gallery room and masturbated while viewers walked on top of the ramp covering him (Fineberg 332). While the viewers could not see him, they could hear the artist’s voice through a microphone in which he narrated his own personal fantasies in relation to the person in the gallery room. Through this personal interaction Acconci sets up a mental and physical relationship to the viewer and, at the same time, explored the “distinction between public and private space” through these same personal interactions (Fineberg 332).

Vito Acconci, Seedbed, 1972

Sources:

Fineberg, Jonathan. Art Since 1940. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2011. Print.

Saltz, Jerry. "Body Heat." The Village Voice. N.p., 20 Apr. 2004. Web. 19 Feb. 2012.
     http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-04-20/art/body-heat/.

Acconci, Vito. Interview by Designboom. designboom. N.p., 21 May 2006. Web. 19 Feb. 2012. http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/acconci.html.

"Vito Acconci." Electronic Arts Intermix. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2012.             http://www.eai.org/artistBio.htm?id=289.

Images:

http://arttorrents.blogspot.com/2008/01/vito-acconci-undertone-1972.html

http://www.eatmedaily.com/2010/04/high-style-at-the-brooklyn-museum-part-2-food-art/

Felix Gonzalez-Torres

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled, 1991

In terms of art and interactivity, the work Felix Gonzalez-Torres is fully invested in the interaction with the viewer. Gonzalez-Torres’ work consists of many simple objects – piles of colorful candy, stacks of paper, synchronized clocks – that he charges with incredibly personal ideas and information that he then allows the audience to engage with. His work is that which is filled with contradictions. The candy pieces, which the audience is allowed to take a part away from the whole, is public yet private at the same time. Public in that a huge array of people are taking in the work and dispersing it, yet private due to the work being directly tied to Gonzalez-Torres’ lover’s death due to AIDS. His paper stack pieces, rather then constitute a solid, immovable monument – which is how they appear at first glance – can be dispersed, depleted and renewed overtime, setting up thoughts about the differences and similarities between impermanence and morality and a sense of reaffirming life (SFMOMA). In both cases it is the audience’s interactions with the pieces that bring out the hidden, personal thoughts and feelings that the artist has imbedded into them. In fact, Gonzalez-Torres stated that, “Without the public these works are nothing. I need the public to complete the work. I ask the public to help me, to take responsibility, to become part of my work, to join in” (SFMOMA).
     An example of Gonzalez-Torres’ work that is dependent on audience interaction is his piece, Untitled (1991). This piece, which is a continuously replenished stack of paper depicting an ocean wave, is a metaphor for the “unfixable and evanescent” stretch of human life, where events rise and disappear, which reflects back on the material nature of the work (Tallman 64). Due to the audience’s coming into contact with the work, and each viewer being able to take a sheet of paper from the stack, the work will never remain the same from day to day – the work is in a constant state of dissolution, followed by a period of regeneration (when the piece is replenished) (Tallman 64).
     This piece also sets up Gonzalez-Torres’ interest in the notion of public and private space. Specifically, he stated that he was interested in creating a truly “public” sculpture, hence the creation of these stack pieces, where a viewer can take a piece of the sculpture from a private, individual spot and bring them out into the wider public (Storr). The individual sheets from Untitled, once taken by a viewer, become “gifts without encumbrance” as they can be treated in anyway, yet will always be connected to the original piece and, at the same time, affect the balance of the relationship between the artist and viewer (Tallman 65-66). The work states it’s emotional case – the emotions of the artist – to the viewer who then bring the work into an even wider context then Gonzalez-Torres might have originally thought possible.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.), 1991

     As already stated, Gonzalez-Torres’ work is dependent on the interaction and distribution into the audience that exists around it. Each piece may have a specific meaning or concept as defined by the artist, but the viewer is the one whose physical interaction with it (taking a sheet of paper or a piece of candy) activates the charged meanings behind the work, if the piece is untouched then the meanings and ideas cannot be activated and passed on. This concept can be seen in Gonzalez-Torres’ candy pieces, specifically the work Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) (1991). The piece itself consists of a pile of shiny, rainbow-colored, individually wrapped hard candies that sit in a corner of the gallery. The pile’s weight, at its maximum, weighs 175 pounds, which was the weight of his lover when he was diagnosed with AIDS (Fineberg 527). As visitors see the piece they are encouraged to take a piece of candy, thereby lowering the overall weight of the work, which imitates his lover’s weight loss due to his illness.  As the work dissipates and regenerates, it looks at the boundaries of commodity and person and the comparison between temporality (the piece slowly disappearing) and immortality (the work being regenerated by having more candy added to it’s weight) (Fineberg 527). The meanings behind the works of Gonzalez-Torres are based on the viewer’s ability to take part in the experience; if the viewer was not able to physically engage and alter the work, then the meaning and the artist himself would be more distant and vague. But because there is an interaction between artist/work and the viewer, the work is able to, “…Share an enduring hope in the fear of loss and impermanence,” and create a sense of connectedness to others and the world at large (SFMOMA).

Sources:

Fineberg, Jonathan. Art Since 1940. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2011. Print.

Tallman, Susan. "Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Social Works." Susan Tallman. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2012. http://www.susan-tallman.com/gonzalez-torres-parkett.pdf.

Gonzalez-Torres, Felix. Interview by Robert Storr. MIT. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2012.
     http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/gonzaleztorres1.pdf.

"Felix Gonzalez-Torres." SFMOMA. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2012.             <http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/collection/artists/2667>.

Images:

http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/robinson/robinson4-17-06_detail.asp?picnum=4

http://shape-and-colour.com/2010/06/23/felix-gonzalez-torres-portrait-of-ross/