Don't Walk

Artist Vito Acconci (American, 1940–2017)

Date1969 (1975)

MediumPhotographs and chalk on board

DimensionsImage: 29 7/8 × 39 7/8 inches (75.9 × 101.3 cm);
Frame: 32 1/8 × 41 7/8 × 1 1/2 inches (81.6 × 106.4 × 3.8 cm)

ClassificationsMixed Media

Credit LineAcquired with funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, and through the generosity of individual donors

Terms

Mixed Media
Photographs and chalk on board
Streetscapes
Urban views

Object number78.006

Label CopyVito Acconci startled gallery viewers in the 1960s with his aggressive performance pieces that evolved around body-centered activities. He has carried this into his other work, his writings, installations, and sculptural work, as he explores the realities of self and situation. He often resorts to mundane, everyday props and always uses a real-life situation as his starting point. There is a consistency of purpose in his work, as he makes the connections between his own body and his destination. In Don't Walk Acconci combines photographs and chalked words in a sequential manner, arresting the movement of his performance. In this case Acconci is recording his response to an ordinary street sign, and the use of the chalk, the medium of sidewalk writing, emphasizes the normality of his action. It is the documentation of the action and the creation of a work of art out of it that is unusual, raising questions about what is art and what is not. (From “A Handbook of the Collection: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art," 1998)

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