Acconci describes himself as an art-dooer rather than an artist. Right now this is something very relevant to my work, as a lot of my ideas seem to be revolving around things to be done, where the outcome in the action of doing, not neccesarilly performance, although I do intend to do performance but also long winded activities that could not be documented as a performance, things perhaps to be documented in words. Acconci was a poet before also combining it with art and this is seem throughout a lot of his work. I cant see myself right now writing actual poetry and it does not seem natural to me, i want to move out of my comfort zone but I believe there are better ways to do this. I want to create poetry out of performance, perhaps a physical thing i put myself through, rather than documenting with video i document with words, so that this can become the poetry, maybe words that come from physical or mental labour? In Acconci's 'claim excerpts' his use of language seems to come from the experience he has put himself, his semi improvised speech seems borne from his building up paranoia and anxiety from the stressful situation he has put himself him. In my work i would like to experiment with this sort of thing, putting myself in a stressful situation to see what language can come from it. Acconci's work is also all to do with interaction, involving the viewers, he belives art should not just be there to be viewed, which is something i agree with. There are some exceptions, like if the restriction of no touch is key to the concept of the work. Touch is a vital part of human existence and is also something i find extremely fascinating. I am not really a 'touchy feely' person, it never crosses my mind to touch someone unless they are someone i know really well, or it feels natural to do so, otherwise if someone else touches me, like a new friend with a hug i respond weirdly because i over think it. I am very fascinated with it though and with people who it comes so naturally too, and this is often reflected in my work. In relation to this 'seedbank' makes me think of touch, but touch through words. Acconci is hidden beneath the floor, wanking and making sexually agressive comments to the people above him, being hidden he can interact with people safely without having to think about actually touching anybody, yet he can communicate sexually with sounds and physical substance, it feels like a sort of solution to touch. In 'Undertone', Acconci seems desperate for touch, trying to convince himself there is a girl there, his arms are under the table so we assume he is touching himself. The same sort of desperation mixed with aggressiveness felt in 'open book' is present here. The confused nature of his speech here, for me connects to my own confusion of touch, it seems like he both wants and does not want touch, happy to touch his own leg but to imagine there is someone else, having his own touch makes everything more simple. In my own practise i realise now that i need to explore touch in someday, human need for tactility was something key to my practise last year but more in terms of animals, however maybe that was just a distraction from humans as I didn't want to use my own thoughts on it. Video is such a strange way to explore touch, it was my medium too, maybe because its less upfront than exploring actual touch, you as the performer can explore it, but no-one else. I have realised recently that my work is very self oriented and egotistical, how do i get away from this? should I?
OPEN BOOK
The video is just Acconci's open mouth, a mouth which he tries to keep open, the act of not closing the mouth affects the speech into something nearly non-nonsensical. We are just able to make out sentences like, 'I’m not closed, I’m open. Come in… You can do anything with me. Come in. I won’t stop you. I can’t close you off. I won’t close you in, I won’t trap you. It’s not a trap.' The speech is desperate, with Acconci offering his whole self, however because the video is just the mouth, we are left to wonder what he really means by 'You can do anything with me', is he just referring to his mouth in which it would seem like a trap. By not closing his mouth he is restricted instead to the over-use of his teeth and tongue making his mouth much more active and again more aggressive, like the mouth of a hungry predator. However the loss of clear language portrays him as someone lost, on the brink of reality, or just someone excessively drunk , however this again leads to aggressiveness. The focus on just the mouth takes us away from Acconci himself, he has become the entity of the mouth, which is perhaps something to be feared. He has become the art object of his mouth, however the question remains whether his mouth still belongs to him in this video? Watching the entirety of the video the movement of becomes something unhuman like a cave that is alive, a cave that you both want to enter from curiosity but also one that you know you shouldn't enter, i guess this plays on sexual desire which is something very key to Acconci's work. The mouth becomes something both repulsive and alluring. Strangely the speech seems to become more audible as the video goes on, continuing to watch gives you a strange power to begin to understand the language of the mouth entity, like a reward for watching, perhaps this is what allures you in. The allure is also felt when the mouth makes a mistake and accidentally closes the mouth , 'That was a mistake. I won’t close. I won’t close you off. I won’t close you in. I’m open to everything'. After building the mouth up into something hypnotically un-human and un-relatable, the mouth instantly becomes more human, and we connect it back to Acconci, the mouth is begging for our forgiveness. In terms of my own practice, I'm very confused at the moment as what to focus my work on. But i know this is something that interests me. I think particularly in the way it relates to the mind and body. Separating a key body part and turning it into something that simply talks, separating it from all other visible body functions, does this connect it to the body, as we physically see it come from the human mouth without other distractions of eye movement, surroundings, expression etc? I also find the careful line between threat and desire portrayed in this work interesting, how easily the two can run into one another. Also the way speech is used, Acconci uses a physical process controlled by his brain, to restrict the words from his mind, we can both physically see and hear the way his actions affect him. I guess i'm interested the way one action can affect the physical and mental very differently, with the mouth and words coming from the mouth doing very different things, the mouth becoming something aggressive whereas the words something alluring, or the words becoming disorientating. On reflection i think Acconci's use of duality is something to take into my own work, with my interests being on mind/body, conciousness/ unconsciousness, becoming/ dying, transgression of humanity/ acceptance of humanity etc.
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