Following Piece (1969) was performed by Vito Acconci (January 24, 1940 – April 27, 2017), who was an influential American performer, video and installation artist. This was one of his most famous pieces, as he selected a random person who were by chance walking by in New York City and followed that person until he or she disappeared into a private place where Acconci could not enter. He did have certain rules he put for himself to obey like not following a person in a dark alley. The act of following could last a few minutes, but maybe even, four or five hours. He repeated this performance for hours in every day (October 3rd - 25th, 1969). To my surprise, he even followed the person to a cinema or restaurant. But why would someone do this?
Acconci claimed that he was lonely and started shadowing people that would hopefully take him somewhere he couldn't know how to take himself. In an interesting way, he used the people's own body as a medium and brought their works out of gallery and into the streets. This really spoke to me as I see a lot of similarities in today's times. At first thought, it seems really creepy and dangerous to the point it could be used as evidence of stalking. But, in today's society we also (unconsciously) follow people on social media everyday. Instagram, for example, is today's version of following piece. We share our everyday movements and allow other people to shadow us from a distance. Very interesting development of events.