Bite the Bullet; Slow Guns for Quick Sale...
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Object Label
TVito Acconci’s artworks of the 1960s and 1970s explore the often unspoken physical, gendered, sexual, and emotional relationships between artist and viewer. For example, in 1969’s Following Piece, he followed randomly selected passersby in New York City, in order to unsettle traditional boundaries of propriety and power.
The prints on view question two of the most prevalent types of power in the United States: the insistence on, and celebration of, gun ownership, as seen in Bite the Bullet: Slow Guns for Quick Sale (To Be Etched on Your American Mind), and the definitions of citizenship, suggested in The Selling of 5 Americans and a Place for One World Citizen. Acconci’s sly critiques place in stark relief the realities of different forms of violence and power at the core of American identity.
Caption
Vito Acconci American, 1940–2017. Bite the Bullet; Slow Guns for Quick Sale..., 1977. Photo-etching on paper, 29 3/4 x 41 3/4in. (75.6 x 106cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Nancy Genn, 1991.215.2. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1991.215.2_PS9.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Bite the Bullet; Slow Guns for Quick Sale...
Date
1977
Medium
Photo-etching on paper
Classification
Dimensions
29 3/4 x 41 3/4in. (75.6 x 106cm)
Signatures
Signed lower right
Inscriptions
Dated and titled in graphite, lower margin Blind Stamp in lower right: "Crown Point Press/ Doris Simmelink" Printed by Doris Simmelink; Published by Crown Point Press
Credit Line
Gift of Nancy Genn
Accession Number
1991.215.2
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
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