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M+, Hong Kong, © Tehching Hsieh
Tehching Hsieh 謝德慶
One Year Performance 1981–1982 一年表演1981–1982
1981–1982, printed 2000
The entire artistic oeuvre of Tehching Hsieh consists of six performances, which the artist defines as his ‘lifeworks’. Hsieh carried out these performances with extreme rigour, establishing a set of rules and conditions and then adhering to them for an extended period of time—the first five of his performances lasted for one year and the sixth lasted for thirteen years. He adopted the aesthetics of administrative function, often incorporating elements like legal documents to emphasise the constraints he placed on his art and his life.
One Year Performance 1981–1982 (also known as Outdoor Piece) was a year-long project in which Hsieh lived outside in New York City, declaring in a statement: ‘I shall not go in to a building, subway, train, car, airplane, ship, cave, tent.’ The work contrasts with—and perhaps complements—Hsieh’s earlier Cage Piece, in which the artist confined his body to a prison cell for one year. A master of endurance and rule-based protocols, Hsieh pledged to exist and survive without shelter, with only a sleeping bag and a backpack containing supplies like clothes, maps, a camera, a radio, and a flashlight. The work exists today as photographic documentation, a Super 8 film, maps that Hsieh produced each day to detail his movements around the city, and two arrest records. Hsieh’s status at the time as an illegal immigrant in the United States heightens the performance’s meaning; at once part of and alienated from the city streets and crowd, Hsieh encountered other marginalised persons such as the homeless and authority figures like the police. As with much of Hsieh’s practice, Outdoor Piece addresses issues of time, rhythm, freedom, discipline, and productivity.
One Year Performance 1981–1982 (also known as Outdoor Piece) was a year-long project in which Hsieh lived outside in New York City, declaring in a statement: ‘I shall not go in to a building, subway, train, car, airplane, ship, cave, tent.’ The work contrasts with—and perhaps complements—Hsieh’s earlier Cage Piece, in which the artist confined his body to a prison cell for one year. A master of endurance and rule-based protocols, Hsieh pledged to exist and survive without shelter, with only a sleeping bag and a backpack containing supplies like clothes, maps, a camera, a radio, and a flashlight. The work exists today as photographic documentation, a Super 8 film, maps that Hsieh produced each day to detail his movements around the city, and two arrest records. Hsieh’s status at the time as an illegal immigrant in the United States heightens the performance’s meaning; at once part of and alienated from the city streets and crowd, Hsieh encountered other marginalised persons such as the homeless and authority figures like the police. As with much of Hsieh’s practice, Outdoor Piece addresses issues of time, rhythm, freedom, discipline, and productivity.
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