Art & The Body - The Body & Endurance - Tehching Hsieh

Tehching Hsieh, born 1950 in Taiwan, is a duration performance artist who has made 6 well known pieces 5 "one year performances" and a single 13 year piece
while the works main focus is on time and the duration for all his work, the body and endurance become evidently an equal focus in the works; One Year Performance 1978–1979 (Cage Piece), One Year Performance 1980–1981 (Time Clock Piece), One Year Performance 1981–1982 (Outdoor Piece), Art / Life: One Year Performance 1983–1984 (Rope Piece)

in each piece Hsieh follows a strict set of rules surrounding the purpose of the performance.

in One Year Performance 1978–1979 also known as cage piece, Hsieh locks himself in a wooden cage 11′6″×9′×8″ for one year, he is brought food by his friend Cheng Wei Kuong, he refused to converse, read, write, watch television or listen to the radio.

in One Year Performance 1980–1981 aka Time Clock Piece, Hsieh punches a time clock card every hour for 24 hours a day, every day for one year. when the card is punched a picture was taken of him and the images where then put into sequence into a video
the video can be seen here ( http://www.mediaartnet.org/works/one-year-performance/video/1/ )

One Year Performance 1981–1982 aka Outdoor Piece, Hsieh lives outside for a year refusing to enter any sort of building or shelter, including tents, vehicles or planes.

Art / Life: One Year Performance 1983–1984 aka Rope Piece, Hsieh and his friend Montano attach themselves to a single 8 foot long rope, while connected they had to stay in the same room but never touch each other until the year was up

each performance was not notarized by a lawyer.
the works each focus on the body and endurance as the artist places himself in a restricted space or action for a prolonged period of time causing serious harm to his body. this is best seen in "time clock piece" and "outdoor piece" as the effects of sleep deprivation and constant exposure to harsh environments cause physical and psychological stress.

as a twist M.River & T.Whid have created a reversal of Hsieh's One Year Performance 1978–1979 (Cage Piece), in which the audience is challenged to watch a one year video compilation of a modernised "cage piece". the idea was to take the original idea of the artists endurance and place it on the audience. so far only 23 people have watched the 1 year long footage
the video footage can be watched here ( http://www.turbulence.org/Works/1year/index.php )