© Vito Acconci / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Currently not on view
Following (Two Works),
1969
Vito Acconci, American, 1940–2017
2014-6
In October 1969, Acconci performed this conceptual piece in which he followed a different randomly chosen person each day until he or she entered a private location. The process varied from a few minutes to several hours and sometimes involved journeys across New York City. For Acconci, the movement of strangers’ bodies on the city streets provided the structure and duration for his own actions, which in turn raised questions about privacy, public space, and individual autonomy.
More Context
Special Exhibition
From October 3 to 25, 1969, Acconci performed this conceptual piece in which he followed a different person each day until he or she entered a private location. Photographs documented Acconci tracking randomly chosen pedestrians through public spaces in the city. On the first day he began at the front door of his building, 102 Christopher Street, and followed a “man in gray suit” who walked west to his parked car at Christopher and Greenwich and then drove away.
Information
Title
Following (Two Works)
Dates
1969
Maker
Medium
Gelatin silver print and chalk on paper
Dimensions
each: 50.8 × 40.6 cm (20 × 16 in.)
frame: 57.8 × 92.1 × 3.8 cm (22 3/4 × 36 1/4 × 1 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund
Object Number
2014-6
Place Depicted
North America, United States, New York, New York
Culture
Materials
Techniques
Subject
- Katherine A. Bussard, Alison Fisher, and Greg Foster-Rice, The City Lost and Found: Capturing New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, 1960–1980 (Princeton: Princeton University Art Museum, 2014),
- "Acquisitions of the Princeton University Art Museum 2014", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 74 (2015): p. 55-77., p. 75
