Tehching Hsieh retrospective at Dia Beacon highlights year‑long performances

Taiwanese‑American performance artist Tehching Hsieh is at Dia Beacon in upstate New York ahead of a major retrospective, Lifeworks: 1978‑1999, which the museum says is three days from opening. The show gathers Hsieh’s durational “actions”, including Cage Piece, in which he lived for one year from 30 September 1978 in an 11ft 6in x 9ft wooden cage where he was not permitted to speak, read or consume media and a friend visited daily with food and to remove his waste.

Seven months after Cage Piece he began Time Clock Piece, which required him to punch a factory‑style clock‑in machine every hour for 365 days. Arguably his most arduous work, One‑Year Performance 1981‑1982 (Outdoor Piece), involved living outside for a year without entering any building, vehicle or using a tent; footage in the exhibition shows arrests for vagrancy, washing in the Hudson, sleeping in car parks and carrying a backpack through heavy snow.

Other works on view include the 1983 piece in which Hsieh was tied by an eight‑foot rope to fellow artist Linda Montano, and extensive documentation such as daily photographs, time‑clock chads and the reconstructed wooden cage with original personal items. Born in 1950 in Nanzhou, Taiwan, Hsieh said his work is about marking the passing of time and that he used his body to express ideas rather than seeking grants or success.

Key Topics

Culture, Tehching Hsieh, Dia Beacon, Cage Piece, Time Clock Piece, Outdoor Piece