2/11, On art in the everyday

Vito Acconci elevated what amounted to little more than morning exercises in his apartment to the realm of performance art. However, he kept it separate from simple calisthenics by only performing during alternating months. The distribution of fliers as invitation and instruction on the performances, as Helen Molesworth pointed out, moved Acconci into the role of manager and curator. He was, indeed, the manager and curator of his studio and gallery space, which also happened to overlap with his living space. This expansion of the art world to include an artist's apartment, and the expansion art to include a man stepping on to a stool every morning poses the question of "What cannot be art and where cannot art take place?"

Robert Morris seemed to be occupied with a similar question when he made his 1969 film Mirror. As an agent of artwork Morris seems to have felt that, like Acconci, he directed what we see. His artistic choice, again like Acconci, is not to show us a carefully crafted and composed image but a simple reflection. Indeed, Mirror shows a very literal interpretation of that choice: the artist is holding the mirror that haphazardly reflects the landscape, and a few occasions reveals the camera and Morris holding the mirror. The piece seems to be a declaration of what Morris feels art should be and do. Just as Acconci could have chosen to perform any physical act in any venue, Morris chose to raise a metaphoric middle finger to established art by documenting a landscape as seen by a mirror he arbitrarily controls.