Performance by Tehching Hsieh at MoMA, New York, until 18 May

Exhibition Description:

The Museum of Modern Art will be presenting Performance 1: Tehching Hsieh, an installation documenting the work of pioneering performance artist Tehching Hsieh (Taiwanese American, b. Taiwan 1950). This exhibition focuses on his earliest performance, Cage Piece (1978-79), in which the artist spent one year locked inside a cage constructed in his Hudson Street loft in New York City. During that period he did not speak, read, nor interact with the world in any way, while a friend of the artist assisted with food, clothes, and waste disposal.

The exhibition will include the original cage used in the performance and objects from its interior (sink, bed, mirror, lamp, etc.); 365 self-portrait photographs with which Hsieh documented the passing of time; 17 large-scale photographic portraits of Hsieh from that period; along with posters and statements connected to the performance. It will also feature posters and materials from Hsieh's subsequent One Year Performances and his final work, termed Thirteen Year Plan, which was completed in 1999 after a process that lasted 13 years. The artist will work closely with the curators of the exhibition to provide materials and assistance with the installation of the works.

"Hsieh's works stand out for their enormous duration and the great physical strain they demand. With rigorous discipline and endurance, the artist created situations in which life and art became simultaneous. In his work, the conventional distinction between artistic time and lived time becomes meaningless," describes Jenny Schlenzka.

Description:

Image: Tehching Hsieh (Taiwanese American, b. Taiwan 1950)
One Year Performance 1978–1979, Life images.
Photo: Cheng Wei Kuong.
Copyright © 1979 Tehching Hsieh, New York

Full Contact Details:

The Yoshiko and Akio Morita Gallery, second floor
The Museum of Modern Art
(212) 708-9400
11 West 53 Street,
between Fifth and Sixth avenues
New York, NY 10019-5497