Vito Acconci
COLLISION HOUSE, 1981
Aluminum, wood, fabric, enamel, cable and pulleys
9’ x 15’ x 45’

 

Two conventional abstract geometric structures whose collision results in the making of three conventional ‘real’ structures.

Two wedge-shapes, like slices of cheese: the wedge in the middle of the space stands on its end, the wedge at the end of the space sits on its bottom. The wedges are made of corrugated aluminum.

The wedge at the end of the space can be entered from behind: there are two holes cut into the sides, toward the front. The holes serve as windows for a viewer inside. Inside the wedge is a bicycle. A viewer, then, can ride the wedge toward the standing wedge.

As the viewer, riding the wedge, approaches the standing wedge, the central portion of that wedge breaks off and pulls away from the viewer. The wedge that the viewer is riding becomes wedged between what is left of the standing wedge: two wedges now on either side of the rider – each wedge has a doorway cut out of its front, the inside of each wedge is painted a cold refrigerator white, a seat is installed on the diagonal rear wall. There’s a sign – black letters on white – on the rear wall of each wedge, over the seat: the wedge on the left announces itself as BMB. SHLTR. NO. 1, and the wedge on the right announces itself as BMB. SHLTR. NO. 2.

What had been the central portion of the standing wedge now stands off in the distance, available not to the rider but only to other viewers. The collision has resulted in the making of a pavilion: pitched roof, gold columns, open sides, blue sky and clouds on the front and back walls. Hanging down between the columns, in the middle of the pavilion, is a black flag with cut-out letters: NGGR. FLG. NO. 1.

 

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