Face of the Earth (1974)

In Face of the Earth Acconcis face becomes a metaphorical theater for a narrative drama of the mythic American landscape Eyes closed his face filling the screen in extreme closeup the camera looking up from his chin he inhabits a dreamlike intensely theatrical space Alternately humming and whispering Acconci begins an oddly poetic hypnotic monologue a streamofconsciousness fantasy of a gunfighter in the American West As if I were riding in from over the mountains Where did I come from His fingers run over the landscape of his face in the rhythm of a galloping horse or caress it as the narrative tension builds With language as a catalyst he conducts a riveting examination of his own identity through American cultural mythologies