Prying

The video “Prying” by Vito Acconci is very aggressive and rather violent. Vito Acconci tries to forcefully pry apart the eyes of Kathy Dillon. He forcefully pulls at her face, at her skin, and at her eyes. I felt very uncomfortable watching him attack her. At some points I could not even watch because the scene was so scary. The audience is no longer just the observer. How long could I sit and watch someone attacked so brutally? At what point would I turn off the television and no longer watch. The most disturbing part is not the scene itself, but the fact that I was still watching it and could not turn it off.

Even though the scene is so violent and scary. Kathy Dillon remains calm throughout most of the film. Her face very stoic, and she does not seem afraid. She does not have the frantic eyes, yells, and facial expressions that I would normally expect from an attack victim. Her stoic nature and stern struggling made me look at the struggle as more than just an innocent victim being attacked. She deliberately moves her head and her face away from Vito Acconci. She is a willing participant in the struggle. This makes the scene a struggle of will power rather than an attack. I had trouble loading the entire film; however, it looked to me as if the film was a battle of endurance. For twenty long minutes Kathy Dillon resists the forceful power of Vito Acconci. I could only imagine how difficult and draining it would be to struggle for such a long time.

The hardest part of the video to watch was when Vito Acconci pulled apart her eyes so that the whites of her eyes shown. You could tell that she was struggling but still manages to keep her iris hidden from the camera. Seeing the whites of her eyes made me feel rather nauseous and sickening. The eyes are such a sensitive part of your face and body, and it looks painful to have them forced apart.

No matter how hard Vito Acconci tried he could not open the eyes of Kathy Dillon. The scene made me realize that people can never forcefully have their eyes opened. No one can understand or see something that they are not willing to see. Vito Acconci forcefully tries to open the eyes of his audience in every video that he produces; however, force will never work if the audience is not a willing participant.