Vito Acconci (1940-2017)
My Word (1973)
1973-74, 91:30 min, color, silent, Super 8mm film on video
In this feature-length silent film, Acconci uses hand-written title cards to present an "interior monologue" about speaking, language, and silence. The written text alternates with images of Acconci, alone in the interior of an urban loft or on a rooftop, with the skyline of downtown New York as a backdrop. This metaphorical landscape of isolation resonates in the text, in which Acconci directly addresses several different women by name, alluding to their relationships with him. The women's identities seem mutable; they are consigned to silence, others without a voice. Given the unstable nature of subjectivity in his work, Acconci ultimately appears to be "speaking" to himself. -- EAI
This title is available for exhibitions, screenings, and institutional use through Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), NY. Please visit the EAI Online Catalogue for further information about this artist and work. The EAI site offers extensive resources for curators, students, artists and educators, including: an in-depth guide to exhibiting, collecting, and preserving media art; A Kinetic History: The EAI Archives Online, a collection of essays, primary documents, and media charting EAI's 40-year history and the early years of the emergent video art scene; and expanded contextual and educational materials.
In this feature-length silent film, Acconci uses hand-written title cards to present an "interior monologue" about speaking, language, and silence. The written text alternates with images of Acconci, alone in the interior of an urban loft or on a rooftop, with the skyline of downtown New York as a backdrop. This metaphorical landscape of isolation resonates in the text, in which Acconci directly addresses several different women by name, alluding to their relationships with him. The women's identities seem mutable; they are consigned to silence, others without a voice. Given the unstable nature of subjectivity in his work, Acconci ultimately appears to be "speaking" to himself. -- EAI
This title is available for exhibitions, screenings, and institutional use through Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), NY. Please visit the EAI Online Catalogue for further information about this artist and work. The EAI site offers extensive resources for curators, students, artists and educators, including: an in-depth guide to exhibiting, collecting, and preserving media art; A Kinetic History: The EAI Archives Online, a collection of essays, primary documents, and media charting EAI's 40-year history and the early years of the emergent video art scene; and expanded contextual and educational materials.