"Pryings"

Vito Acconci’s video “Pryings” depicts a struggle between the artist and a woman, Kathy Dillon. The title thoroughly illuminates the piece. It clearly shows Acconci trying to pry open the eyes of Dillon while she rigorously tries to withstand him. From its inception, the video had a viscous atmosphere. It looked like a rape or a torture scene. It made me think back to his video “Theme Song” and wonder if this is what he wanted to do to whoever he was talking to. Dillon doesn’t seem to want to fight Acconci off, but only resists in opening her eyes. Even when Acconci gets one eye open, she looks away. It is as if she doesn’t want to see what Acconci wants her to. This may be the focus of the video, in that we, as a viewer, have the choice to open our eyes to something or to look away. Acconci may just be trying to open our eyes to some new view of things.

Some things that I picked up while watching this video was that the camera never really gets a good view of Acconci’s eyes. Acconci is just a figure who we never really get to know because the camera is never on him, only his hands. The main focus is on Dillon’s face. When she tries to hide her face in his chest he forcefully tilts it toward the camera and when her hair gets in the way, Acconci swipes it away. Also interesting to note was that there was no sound or words spoken at all in the piece. All we hear are their movements and their breathing which get even more intense as the video progresses. As tension builds in the video, so does it in the viewer. Acconci does a great job of making his viewers feel certain emotions by using up close angles and shots in his work.