In 1978, the artist Tehching Hsieh locked himself in a cage and proceeded to stay there for 365 consecutive days. With only the bare necessities—running water, soap, daily rations of food—he spent that entire year without talking to anyone, reading anything, or doing anything whatsoever. He simply lived alone with himself and his thoughts.
The cage from Hsieh’s yearlong performance and general documentations from his other performance pieces are now on view at the Museum of Modern Art. The exhibit is the first of a commendable enterprise by the museum that seeks to bring performance art documentation, original performance pieces, and live re-enactments into the museum setting.
Hsieh can be called an artist of extremes. He is best known for his year long performance pieces: one year punching a time clock every hour on the hour, one year living exclusively outdoors, one year tied to another person, and one year locked in a cage. To say the least, his brand of art requires tenacity.
A remarkable set of 355 documentary photos make up the exhibit (365 were intended, 10 were lost). Each is a deadpan, shoulder-length frontal of Hsieh. This consistent, straightforward perspective makes the subtle variations in posture and facial appearance that much more apparent. The photos eerily record the passing of time—we can follow the slow growth of Hsieh’s hair, which he shaved off and allowed to grow throughout the span of his performance.
With this explicit focus on his cage piece, the exhibit is restrained and focused. The sparseness of the display works well with the art, allowing space for the viewer to project and imagine what the passage of time would have been like for the artist.
The harsh, rigorous process of Hsieh’s art can, at times, make it seem removed from practical matters. Yet at the core of all his artwork is an overwhelming preoccupation with everyday life. After all, he made time itself the medium of his art, and what’s more inextricable from life than time? The MoMA show, while not comprehensive, offers a wonderful space to contemplate a few conceptual treasures of a complex artist.
“Performance 1: Tehching Hsieh” is on view at the Museum of Modern Art through May 18. MoMA is located at 11 53rd Street (btwn Fifth and Sixth avenues).
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