VITO
ACCONCI:
Rehearsals for Architecture
Kenny Schachter/Rove @ 132
Perry Street, NYC
October 15th – December
30th, 2003
Opening Reception: Wednesday October 15th, 6 - 9pm
Kenny Schachter/Rove
t. 212 807-6669 f. 645-0743
www.RoveTV.net schachter@mindspring.com
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
Kenny Schachter/ROVE is pleased to present a selection
of works by legendary artist-turned-architect Vito
Acconci. On display are drawings, several text/photo
works, one installation, and three pieces of “furniture.”
The text/photo works, dating back to
the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, consist
of panels covered with photographs and handwritten
texts, which document Acconci’s psychological
and physical interactions with both his body and his
environment.
Collision House, created
in 1981, is a large-scale interactive installation
that incorporates a bicycle, signage, and four corrugated-metal
structures. The bicycle is housed in a large wedge,
pointing towards a three-part, triangular structure.
The viewer is invited to enter the wedge and take
a seat on the bicycle. As the viewer pedals forward
on the bicycle, a system of pulleys and counterweights
enables the now peripatetic wedge to penetrate the
center space of the triangular structure directly
ahead. Though the bicycle does, in fact, make progress,
the middle section ahead silently recedes—remaining
always just beyond reach. On the interior walls of
the peripheral segments of the triangular structure,
large signs reading “BMB SHLTR NO. 1”
and “BMB SHLTR NO. 2” become visible through
two large peepholes cut out of the wedge. Visible
only to those standing outside the piece is the interior
of the center section, where painted clouds adorn
the inside of the corrugated-metal. Suspended inside
is a black sign reading, in cutouts, ”NGGR FLG
NO. 1.”
In the mid-to-late 1980’s, Acconci
continued to create interactive works, which he labeled
“furniture.” These pivotal pieces, together
with Collision House, signal Acconci’s shift
in focus—towards more architectonic concerns.
Hole in the Ground
is a man-made hill covered in ferns that rises over
a large rubber silhouette of a human figure. A three-way
path of stepping-stones traverses the hill, which
is buttressed by a concrete retaining wall and penetrated
by a culvert pipe. One viewer may lie down on the
silhouette, with the hill and pipe serving as a sleeping
bag, while another viewer walks up and down the hill.
Garden Chair consists
of an old rubber tire and two man-made rock formations,
covered in plants and housing fluorescent lights that
illuminate what appears to be a neat break in one
large rock. Plants grow out of crevices in various
spots on the rocks. The tire is embedded in the front
slope of the bisected rock and bridges the glowing
crag.
Big Baby Floor is a
large wood floor, thirty feet in diameter, which rises
eighteen inches from the ground at a forty-five degree
angle. There are three eight-foot “babies”
cut out of the floor, and the silhouettes are clad
in rubber. Viewers are invited to enter through the
babies’ feet, take a seat on the floor, and
exit via steps following the curves of the big babies’
heads.
—Benjamin Berlow
