As a writer, poet, performance artist, Acconci is a seminal figure of the Conceptual Art movement of the late 60's and earley 70's. His performace based works evolved into installations incorporating video and audio and inviting viewer participation. These works led to a further exploration of sculpture as architecture or furniture, the viewer inside the piece, able to walk through, live in, sit on, climb over works meant to question the role of the artist and his relation to the society and its environment as whole. In the late 80's this led to the foundation of the Acconci Studio, the main focus of which is public sculpture and architecture which still seems to address the questions of public vs. private space which were a concern in his early work.

SOME NOTES ON BLOWN-UP BABY-DOLL
VITO ACCONCI, 5/20/94
A face is blown up -- expanded, exploded -- to become architecture.
More precisely: the image -- the flat image, the photographic image -- of a face is blown up to become a wall. The baby grows up to become bigger -- more than we ever accounted for.
The 'normal' is analyzed, separated into parts; the parts are replicated, revolved, and enlarged; the 'normal' is repeated/reversed/de-placed, so that it becomes a 'monster.' or: the 'powerless' is repeated/reversed/de-placed, so that it becomes 'powerful'...the 'human' is repeated/reversed/de-placed. So that it becomes a 'thing'/ a 'fact'/ a 'god'... Or maybe it's simply that: the image of a human face is repeated/reversed/de-placed so that it becomes 'atmosphere' -- it becomes wall-pattern, a wall-hanging, like a rug for the wall.
Color