Thursday, November 4, 2010

Prying

In this 20 minute film, Aconcci fights to try and "pry" open Kathy Dillon's eyes. She puts up one hell of a fight as he tries to restrain her and gain control over her body so he can steadily pull her eyelids apart. In the midst of all this, Kathy appears to be disturbed by whatever Aconcci is trying to show her; whatever it is she clearly does not want to see it. While watching this, the word torture came to mind. I felt like during the performance Acconci was trying to torture Dillon by showing her something terrifying. Putting myself in her shoes, I couldn't imagine having that amount of endurance unless I was being forced to see something that was absolutely going to terrify me. Thinking back on my own experiences, the only time I have shut my eyes that tight, was when I was petrified of seeing something that was going to scare me.

Once Acconci gets her eye lids open, Dillion fixes her eyes in a way where only the whites of her eyes are showing (rolling her pupils in the back of her head, eliminating the part of her eyes that she sees out of). I doubt my idea is even close to the real reason why Acconci was trying to pry her eyes open, but that is what I interpreted from the performance.

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