Teching Hsieh is an artist whose works consist of durational performances, each of which involve a particular vow, personal restriction, or other such constraint. His One Year Performances occurred between 1978 and 1986, and his thirteen year performance lasted from 1986 to 1999.
His artist statement for his thirteen year performance reads:
STATEMENT
I, Teching Hsieh, have a thirteen year's plan
I will make ART during this time.
I will not show it publicly.
This plan will begin on my 36th birthday December 31, 1986
continue until my 49th birthday December 31, 1999.
Teching Hsieh
A One Year Performance in which he ties himself to a partner with a rope reads:
STATEMENT
We, Linda Montana and Teching Hsieh, plan to do a one year performance.
We will stay together and never be alone.
We will be in the same room at the same time, when we are inside.
We will be tied together at waist with an 8 foot rope.
We will never touch each other during the year.
The performance will begin on July 4, 1983 at 6 p.m.
and continue until July 4, 1984 at 6 p.m.
Linda Montano
Teching Hsieh
His works exist counter to an increasingly fast paced culture that values speed and efficiency, and raises important questions about how we value time, and how we spend our lives.
Although these performances, like the films of Andy Warhol, may be unwatchable, it is the concepts themselves that arouse curiosity and intrigue, and interrupt our concept of life.
I thought occured to me today. Another performer who does durational work. It never occurred to me that magician David Blaine might be considered a durational performance artist. His multiple TV appearances in which he immerses himself under water, surrounds himself with ice, or lives in a plexiglass box suspended above the street have made him a household name.
ReplyDeleteBut it is curious that I consider him an entertainer and not an artist. If these stunts were performed by Teching Hsieh, or anyone else in the art world I would consider it valid.
I think maybe its the magic tricks and the associations with Las Vegas and television that disqualify him for me.