Tehching "Sam" Hsieh exhibition at MoMA
MoMA has an upcoming exhibit that focuses on Sam Hsieh's cage piece performance. The installation opens January 21st and runs through May 18th, 2009. Here's the announcement:
This is the inaugural installation in an ongoing series that will bring performance documentation, original performance pieces, and live reenactments of historic performances to various locations throughout the Museum. The first artist to be spotlighted is Tehching Hsieh (b. 1950, Taiwan), who is best known for his five One Year Performances: between 1978 and 1986, the artist spent one year locked inside a cage, one year punching a time clock every hour, one year completely outdoors, one year tied to another person, and, lastly, one year without making, viewing, discussing, reading about, or in any other way participating in art. Hsieh's final performance piece, Thirteen Year Plan, was completed in 1999 after a process lasting thirteen years. This exhibition focuses on the artist's earliest performance, commonly called his Cage Piece (1978-79), with 365 photographs meticulously documenting the daily passing of time.See my earlier posts about Hseih and MTAA's update of his cage piece.
Labels: performance, shows
posted by Ethan at
8:25 AM
2 Comments:
Interesting: In his Brooklyn Rail interview, Hseih says that after his fifth performance (the year without art), he no longer makes any art and no longer considers himself an artist. He makes a distinction between the "actions" he performs now and his previous work, which he recognizes as art. I'm not sure what the significance of that distinction is to him, especially in consideration of the fact that others continue to view him as an artist and he now has an exhibition at the MoMA.
Well, the exhibition features documentation of his Cage Piece which dates back to when Hsieh was actively making art... so the MoMA exhibition doesn't really contradict Hsieh's retirement from art.
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