interview by JEFF RIAN portraits and pictures in Vito Acconci’s studio by ARI MARCOPOULOS All art works courtesy of Acconci Studio The icon of the New York underground art scene didn’t come from art but changed it forever. JEFF RIAN — You began as a writer. VITO ACCONCI — By the time I was in high school I realized this was what I wanted to do. But I don’t think any of this would have happened without my father. He didn’t go to school, so he taught himself. He constantly spoke in puns like, “What’s honeymoon salad?” The answer was, “Lettuce alone.” That was followed by: “Don’t look now, Mayonnaise is dressing.” I heard my father before the Marx brothers, who were totally about puns. In school, language made sense, then I heard my father and the Marx brothers totally explode it. Groucho is on a ship and a…