Tehching Hsieh: One Year Performance 1980-1981
UCCA is pleased to present Tehching Hsieh One Year Performance 1980-1981, a concise exhibition of the work of one of the world鈥檚 most important performance artists, and the founding influence on Chinese performance art after 1989. Born in Taiwan and based in New York City, where he conceived and executed five 鈥淥ne Year Performances鈥� in the late 1970s and early 1980s before abruptly ceasing to make and show new work, Hsieh is a pioneer of the avant-garde whose practice is currently undergoing a scholarly reexamination. The full installation from one of his most iconic works, 鈥淭ime Clock Piece鈥� (One Year Performance 1980-1981)鈥攁 work in which the artist punches a time clock every hour for an entire year鈥攚ill be shown in the UCCA Long Gallery alongside documentary materials on his other works.
Tehching Hsieh (b. 1950, Taiwan) is renowned for the way his works collapse the distance between art and life. Hsieh鈥檚 five 鈥淥ne Year Performances,鈥� executed between 1978 and 1986, give flesh to concepts central to theoretical investigations into the mechanics of late capitalism鈥攑resence and surveillance, production and control, discipline and submission. In his first One Year Performance, 鈥淐age Piece鈥� the artist locked himself in a cell in a New York studio for a year, no reading, writing, talking, watching television, or listing to the radio permitted for the duration. This was followed by 鈥淭ime Clock Piece鈥� several months later, and then 鈥淥utdoor Piece,鈥� in which the artist stayed outside, not entering any interior space for a year. With incarceration and homelessness unlikely states to enter into voluntarily, Hsieh鈥檚 works demonstrate extraordinary levels of individual will. Hsieh鈥檚 fourth piece however is relational in its focus. For a year, the artist was tied to another performance artist, Linda Montano, with an eight foot-long rope, the rules being that the two remain bound together but unable to touch each other. The final two pieces in Hsieh鈥檚 extraordinary oeuvre include the 鈥淣o Art Piece,鈥� a total removal from all art practice for a year, closely followed by 鈥淭hirteen-Year Plan,鈥� a period in which Hsieh made art but did not show it publicly, ending on the artist鈥檚 birthday on the eve of the new millennium, December 31, 1999.
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UCCA is pleased to present Tehching Hsieh One Year Performance 1980-1981, a concise exhibition of the work of one of the world鈥檚 most important performance artists, and the founding influence on Chinese performance art after 1989. Born in Taiwan and based in New York City, where he conceived and executed five 鈥淥ne Year Performances鈥� in the late 1970s and early 1980s before abruptly ceasing to make and show new work, Hsieh is a pioneer of the avant-garde whose practice is currently undergoing a scholarly reexamination. The full installation from one of his most iconic works, 鈥淭ime Clock Piece鈥� (One Year Performance 1980-1981)鈥攁 work in which the artist punches a time clock every hour for an entire year鈥攚ill be shown in the UCCA Long Gallery alongside documentary materials on his other works.
Tehching Hsieh (b. 1950, Taiwan) is renowned for the way his works collapse the distance between art and life. Hsieh鈥檚 five 鈥淥ne Year Performances,鈥� executed between 1978 and 1986, give flesh to concepts central to theoretical investigations into the mechanics of late capitalism鈥攑resence and surveillance, production and control, discipline and submission. In his first One Year Performance, 鈥淐age Piece鈥� the artist locked himself in a cell in a New York studio for a year, no reading, writing, talking, watching television, or listing to the radio permitted for the duration. This was followed by 鈥淭ime Clock Piece鈥� several months later, and then 鈥淥utdoor Piece,鈥� in which the artist stayed outside, not entering any interior space for a year. With incarceration and homelessness unlikely states to enter into voluntarily, Hsieh鈥檚 works demonstrate extraordinary levels of individual will. Hsieh鈥檚 fourth piece however is relational in its focus. For a year, the artist was tied to another performance artist, Linda Montano, with an eight foot-long rope, the rules being that the two remain bound together but unable to touch each other. The final two pieces in Hsieh鈥檚 extraordinary oeuvre include the 鈥淣o Art Piece,鈥� a total removal from all art practice for a year, closely followed by 鈥淭hirteen-Year Plan,鈥� a period in which Hsieh made art but did not show it publicly, ending on the artist鈥檚 birthday on the eve of the new millennium, December 31, 1999.
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