The Cleveland Museum of Art (spacer)
Special Exhibitions 		(spacer) (separator) (spacer) (spacer)
Into The Light 		(spacer)
(spacer)
Into The Light

Artists in the Exhibition


Vito Acconci (American, born 1940)
Other Voices for a Second Sight, 1974

In the early 1970s, Vito Acconci made a group of architectural video installations that combined his psychological explorations of personal identity with broader political themes. This installation is divided into three constructed rooms. In the central room, which resembles a sound studio, Acconci's disembodied voice relates a long monologue that evokes the stories of a radio talk show host.

In the room on the right, which can only be seen through a horizontal window, political posters and video and slide projections of Acconci's body appear in the darkness. Acconci's voice is heard reading transcribed speeches from 20th-century left-wing revolutionaries, such as Che Guevara, Franz Fanon, and Abbie Hoffman, articulating the loss of direction and integrity he and other artists felt had taken place during the Vietnam era.

The room on the left, also visible through a horizontal window, is painted white and has a horizontal format. Images of Acconci are projected onto opaque sheets and are accompanied by a third taped monologue in which an obscure, dreamlike narrative develops. Acconci's identity is split between these three rooms and, within them, is further split into fragments of meandering narrative in which he occupies multiple identities.

About Vito Acconci
Born 1940, Bronx, New York
Lives in Brooklyn, New York

Although he began his career as a poet, Vito Acconci soon became one of the most significant and confrontational international artists of our time, pushing the limits between public and private space. In the 1960s and 1970s, Acconci used his own body as a subject for photography, film, video and performance. In the 1980s, he began constructing models of houses, gardens and furniture. With his studio, Acconci has collaborated to design and build projects in parks and buildings and on city streets. The relationship between the body and its environment is a prevailing theme in Acconci's work and permeates his examinations of art as well as design and architecture.


Page 10 of 16 | On the next page: Michael Snow (American, born Canada, 1929)
Two Sides to Every Story, 1974