Hsieh is a Taiwanese performance artist of epic proportions. Born on New Year's Eve 1950 he dropped out of school and took up painting, shortly after having his first exhibition he gave up painting and turned to performance art. His first performance was called 'jump piece' in which he filmed himself jumping from the second story breaking both of his ankles. He then became a sailor and jumped ship to Philadelphia in the U.S.A where he was an illegal immigrant for the next 14 years until he was granted amnesty.
In 1978 Hsieh began his first major piece of work in the US. For 'One Year Performance 1978–1979 (Cage Piece)', he spent a year confined to a cell-like room, his only contact with the outside world was once a day when a friend brought him food, clothing and removed his waste, although the friend was not allowed to speak. Over the year, he vowed not to converse, read, write, listen to the radio or watch television. He wrote to several important critics and artists to inform them he was doing the work and held a series of open viewings where people could come at predetermined days to see it – but at the time, but unfortunately the work, on the whole, went unnoticed.
It was recorded through a series of photographs that show Hsieh with a shaved head on day one, wearing a prison uniform embroidered with his name. Over the course of the ordeal his hair grew long and scruffy and his appearance grew shabby, the photographs can only give us a tiny hint of the boredom he must have experienced: he marks notches in the walls, he sits with his head in his hands, he looks blankly at the camera.
Next up was One Year Performance 1980–1981 (Time Clock Piece), where he punched an office timecard on the hour, every hour of every day. This meant no real sleep or time to do anything else. He only missed punching in a handful of times over the year due to oversleeping, even though he had an extra loud alarm clock. Each time he punched the clock he took a picture of himself, which when put together make a six-minute movie. Again, he shaved his head at the beginning to show the passing of time as it grew.
“I was thinking about wasting time. Before I had a studio, but I didn’t know what to create. I was just wasting time, thinking, for years. Then I turned wasting time into art."
Next Hsieh started one of the most extreme pieces of performance art ever performed. For One Year Performance 1981-1982 (Outdoor Piece), he avoided any kind of indoor shelter and lived on the streets of New York with a sleeping bag during one of the coldest winters on record. He managed to stay outdoors for the whole year except on one occasion, when he was actually arrested for vagrancy. Thankfully Hsieh came before a sympathetic judge who had read about the artwork in the Wall Street Journal, and immediately released him back on the street.
The hardest part was keeping himself clean, "You are dirty," he said "people stay away, kids laugh at you. I am a clean person. That is peace to me.”
One Year Performance 1983-1984 (Rope Piece) In this performance, his first with another person, Hsieh and Linda Montano spent one year between 4 July 1983 and 4 July 1984 tied to each other with an 8-foot-long (2.4 m) rope. They had to stay in the same room when inside but were not allowed to touch each other until the end of the one-year period. Both shaved their hair in the beginning of the year. This was captured by time stamped photographs.
“That piece came with a job, and a challenge to deal with society,” says Hsieh. “The job just pays one person, and we shared half and half. She had to take train at 5 o’clock in the morning and teach there and I went too.”
Next was 'One Year Performance 1985–1986 (No Art Piece)' Hsieh spent a year without having anything to do with art in any way possible. He did not create any art, didn't talk about art, didn't look at anything related to art, didn't read any books about art, and did not enter any art museum or gallery.
Then finally, Tehching Hsieh 1986–1999 (Thirteen Year Plan.) At the beginning of this epic piece, Hsieh declared, "Will make Art during this time. Will not show it publicly." This plan began on his 36th birthday, 31 December 1986, and lasted until his 49th birthday, 31 December 1999.
At the end, on 1 January 2000 he issued his concluding report, "I kept myself alive. I passed the December 31st, 1999." The report consisted of cutout letters pasted onto a single sheet of paper.
Job done.
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