Lecture #1 Tehching Hsieh: A Discussion

Tehching Hsieh is a practicing artist specializing in time-related performance pieces. These pieces typically occupy one year time intervals and require unparalleled and almost incomprehensibly rigorous dedication. Art for Hsieh takes on an inseparable form as life and art become one thing, however, these pieces also have a dictated period of time. This gives the pieces a clever label and non-label. The documentation of all of his works in a very specific documentary method, as evident in the legal certification accompanying Time Clock Piece, yet also inherently impossible to maintain such a label at the same time. They are not physical, much like expressionist stylized artwork these documents and other memorabilia are only artefacts of the event itself. In essence this is indicative of the very nature of his work concerning time, as time itself is a physical phenomenon but simultaneously occupies no space and thus refutes such quantifiable labels due to its ethereal qualities. Hsieh has stated that, although his artwork may seem to inherently discuss issues such as monotony, repetition, capitalistic isolationism and social issues the work itself is simply about the “passing of time.” It is the event itself that is of artistic or conceptual merit Hsieh states. In this way the event requires personal connection and reflection to contextualize such a dense artistic event. This concept itself is reminiscent of works such as Chicken by Alan Kaprow who championed the artistic notion of ‘happenings.’ However, this message is inherently confusing. After all, how is it possible not to relate year-long artistic events summarized posthumously by the artist through the phrase “life is a life sentence” as anything but commentary on the imprisoning roles of society and the stark reality of a monotonous existence? Existentialism seems to be essential in all of Hsieh’s pieces. However, the power in the work of Tehching Hsieh may simply be the infinitely possible interpretations from such monumental works concerning the ever progressing fact of time. It is the constant and quantifiable variable in every person’s existence; unyielding and inherently personal in every way.