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Walking After Acconci Artworks that reference other artworks as their main subject matter run the risk of being little more than esoteric in-jokes for those who know their art history. Whilst Forsyth & Pollard's latest video, a remake of Acconci's Walk-over (Indirect Approaches), is on one level exactly that, it is also far from being a dry homage or conceptual one-liner. Unlike their earlier nostalgia tinged videos which sought to recreate the atmosphere and aesthetics of cult performances by the Cramps and Bowie, Walking After Acconci (Redirected Approaches) appropriates Acconci's confrontational strategies but mixes them with contemporary references and techniques, producing a multi-layered work that is clearly sited in the here and now. Walking After Acconci is a work of similarity and difference. It takes on the original's premise: a figure stands in a corridor looking out, coming close up to the camera, confronting and ranting at the viewer who by implication takes on the role of a rejected ex-lover. The aesthetics are, however, very different from the low resolution, degraded black and white video that we associate with Acconci. The saturated colours, dramatic lighting and high production values are those of a contemporary music promo rather than a '70s video work. Presented on a large plasma screen in the darkened gallery space, Walking After Acconci creates a chiaroscuro effect with fluorescent lighting and shadow: this is the narrow corridor of your nightmares, blocked by an angry confrontational youth with a personal grudge. The music video aesthetic is not just a stylistic technique but makes reference to the protagonist, the young man dressed in a black hooded top with shaved head, nightclub pallor and adolescent complexion. He could be mistaken for a particularly charismatic youth off the street (which in one sense he is). He is also a professional, an MC, the enigmatically named Plan B. Forsyth and Pollard are not therefore literally 'walking' after Acconci and following in his footsteps; the artists choose not to place themselves in front of the camera, but instead evoke Acconci's menacing performance through this contemporary 'angry young man' from a different cultural milieu. This sets up additional critiques around the art world's love of pop music, youth culture and all things cool, and society's fear and vilification of the adolescent male: the gallery visitor can admire his anger, contempt and assurance on screen but would flinch from coming face to face with it on the street. The freshness of the work comes from Plan B's improvisations with vernacular that update Acconci's stream of consciousness; the knowingly misogynistic insults are both true to Acconci and to the demonised lyrics of contemporary rap music. As in Acconci's original, the work is still about endurance, the duration of both videos is around 20 minutes and the viewer must decide whether he or she can sit through all of the shouted invectives and the long moments when the youth walks away, flicking his lighter, whistling at the end of the corridor, charging himself up for the next verbal onslaught against you, the viewer. Ultimately, Walking After Acconci is more than just a dialogue between two art works; intense, confrontational and compelling, it leaves the viewer who commits to watching it all the way through, tense, nervous and drained: its power is experiential as well as referential.
Walking After Acconci This text was written to review the exhibition at Kate MacGarry.
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