ART CITIES:N.York-Voice of America

Vito Acconci’s Installation at the Portland Center for Contemporary Arts “Voice of America” dates back to 1975. Two over-sized wooden chairs occupy the end of a dark room. In front of the chairs, a rope grid is installed, aerial views of America are projected through the ropes. Two audio-speakers, located under the chairs, play music and the voice of a mythical Mr. America talking to Mrs. America. Voice of America, says Acconci, “was one of my first groping attempts to turn ‘space’ into ‘place’…my pieces were starting to be historicized, politicized.” After almost 30 years, Acconci’s message still sounds, its relevance unmuted.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Gladstone Gallery Archive

The group exhibition “Voice of America” at Gladstone Gallery takes as stepping stone Vito Acconci’s iconic installation of the same name and on the work’s themes via responses by: Paul Chan, Sharon Hayes, Barbara Kruger and Rirkrit Tiravanija, in formal and conceptual dialogue with the installation. Vito Acconci was a pioneering artist, poet, and architect. The legacy of his influential conceptual work is still felt in the fields of performance, social practice, installation, and multimedia art. Paul Chan is an artist, writer, and publisher of “Badlands Unlimited”. His animated films, performances and multimedia performances centering on Western philosophers and outsider artists question the hierarchies of knowledge. Sharon Hayes has used performance, video, and photography to grapple with the intimacy of activism and social justice. For this exhibition she returns to her seminal work “The Lesbian” to question unconscious gender bias implicit in our understanding of the environment and national identity. Barbara Kruger’s graphic photo and text works challenge the myths of power implicit in image and language. Since the 1970s, she has exposed bitter truths of gender, politics, and inequality through her signature graphic style and pithy insight. Rirkrit Tirvanija explores the social dynamics that define how people come together. Through both architectural and performative interventions, he breaks down the distinctions imposed by space to create moments of sharing and communal knowledge production. In “Voice of America” Acconci deconstructs the national myths of manifest destiny and the promise of boundless opportunity. Tackling American institutions and identities latent in the installation, Chan, Hayes, Kruger, and Tirvanija raises questions as to the political, economic, and social framework of the nation. Each exposes harsh truths of our American reality, including inequality, consumerism, our leadership, and oppression of marginalized groups. While celebrating the singular and influential legacy of Vito Acconci, this group exhibition includes other voices of the American experience at this precarious time when our founding ideals are in-flux and threatened.

Info: Gladstone Gallery, 515 West 24th Street, New York, Duration: 29/6-27/7/18, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00, https://gladstonegallery.com