What Will Be: The Deferred Language of Vito Acconci
What Will Be: The Deferred Language of Vito Acconci

Summary/Abstract: Most criticism makes only fleeting reference to Vito Acconci’s formal poetic training when considering his conceptual works, suggesting poetry and conceptual art are two entirely separate practices. This disarticulation is unproductive, though, given conceptual art’s engagement with language. Perhaps critics took Acconci at his word when he stated firmly that he was no longer a poet after 1969: “Once I had gotten out of poetry, I would probably have had at the back of my mind, don’t get into anything that has any resemblance to my literature background.” Nevertheless, on this point he often wavered: “Okay, this interest in movement. Trace it back to poetry, movement over a page.” Or, perhaps, the lack of an archive for Acconci’s collected poetry prior to 2006 explains the paucity of scholarship bridging these two voices of Acconci together. Whatever the reason, Acconci (the poet) and Acconci (the conceptual artist) rarely are brought into conversation. Yet these practices are complimentary, and this essay reunites the two aspects of the poet/artist. In 2004, Acconci’s notes and documentation for conceptual works came out in Vito Acconci: Diary of a Body 1969 -1973, with an introduction by Gregory Volk, followed in 2006, by an extensive collection of Acconci’s poetry in Language to Cover a Page: The Early Writings of Vito Acconci, edited by Craig Dworkin. I examine two less well-known works from these archives to draw connections between Acconci’s poetry and conceptual art. Through this trans-discursive analysis, I argue that Acconci pointedly critiques language as a system of deferral and indeterminacy, questioning its capacity for representation.

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