Why Don't You Come Up and See Mine Sometime?...
Vito Acconci
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Caption
Vito Acconci (American, 1940–2017). Why Don't You Come Up and See Mine Sometime?..., 1977. Photo-etching on paper, 29 3/4 x 41 3/4in. (75.6 x 106cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Nancy Genn, 1991.215.3. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Why Don't You Come Up and See Mine Sometime?...
Date
1977
Medium
Photo-etching on paper
Classification
Dimensions
29 3/4 x 41 3/4in. (75.6 x 106cm)
Signatures
Signed lower right in graphite
Inscriptions
Dated and titled in graphite, lower margin
Credit Line
Gift of Nancy Genn
Accession Number
1991.215.3
Frequent Art Questions
Can you tell me about the context of this piece?
One of the most important things to consider when viewing Vito Acconci's work is his own feelings: he identified as a feminist, but struggled to rectify that with his own identity as a straight, white male.In this series of photos, which depict oral sex, he directly confronts the explicit implications of the phrase "Why Don’t You Come Up and See Mine Sometime?" by presenting it literally. You could also read the title as a question asked by one artist to another about coming up to their studio to see their work. If the power dynamic between the two parties are skewed, the piece intertwines sex and the expectation of sex with access and power.He said in 1991: "My early work came out of a context of feminism, and depended on that context. Performance in the early seventies was inherently feminist art. I, as a male doing performance, was probably colonizing it."
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