‘Teching Hsieh: Lifeworks’ Traces 21 Years of Endurance

Summary

• Dia Beacon presents Tehching Hsieh: Lifeworks 1978–1999, the first full retrospective of his durational performances
• Highlights include “Cage Piece,” “Time Clock Piece,” “Outdoor Piece” and “Rope Piece,” alongside the monumental “Thirteen Year Plan”

Currently on view at Dia Beacon is Tehching Hsieh: Lifeworks 1978–1999, the first comprehensive retrospective dedicated to the Taiwanese American artist’s radical durational performances. Enacted over a 21-year period, Hsieh’s oeuvre consists of five iconic One Year Performances followed by his monumental “Thirteen Year Plan,” all of which collapsed the traditional boundaries between art and life. This long-term view marks a significant milestone as it brings together all five year-long works for the first time, including “Rope Piece” and the “Thirteen Year Plan,” both of which have never been exhibited before.

The exhibition highlights Hsieh’s uncompromising commitment to the principle of duration, defined by the artist as the time it takes the earth to revolve around the sun. Notable featured works include “Cage Piece (1978–79),” where Hsieh lived in isolation within a wooden cage for a full year, and “Time Clock Piece (1980–81),” which documented his exhausting labor of punching a time clock every hour, on the hour.

Visitors will also experience the artifacts of “Outdoor Piece (1981–82),” where he lived on New York streets without shelter and “Rope Piece (1983–84),” a collaboration with Linda Montano that forced the two artists to live tied together by an eight-foot rope without physical contact. The retrospective is organized around a unique architectural model conceptualized by Hsieh to represent “art time” – the periods of performance – and the life-intervals in between.

The Tehching Hsieh: Lifeworks 1978–1999 exhibition is currently set for long-term view at Dia Beacon, with no definitive ending date.

Dia Beacon
3 Beekman Street,
Beacon, NY 12508
USA