On Artist Tehching Hsieh & Durational Performance Art – A Talk with Brian Leahy

Thu 24 Mar 2016, 8 pm
Six Space

From the organizer:

Brian T. Leahy is an artist, writer, historian, and curator who lives and works in Chicago. On his trip to Viet Nam this time, he will speak about the artist Tehching Hsieh, known for his extreme yearlong performances in New York City between 1978-1999. Hsieh, born in Taiwan in 1950, emigrated to the United States as a young man and performed six major works of performance art, the first of which involved locking himself in a cage for one year. The talk will serve as an introduction to Hsieh’s work, with a particular focus on the ways in which his art intermingles the often-separated categories of performance and conceptual art. Brian will also discuss some of the significance of Hsieh’s last two artworks within the context of 1980s New York City, drawing from original research conducted for his master’s degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Watch Hsieh talk about his one-year long “Time Clock Piece” here:
[youtube width=”700″ height=”393″]https://youtu.be/FoNd254KrjU[/youtube]

TALK SCHEDULE

1. Introduction of Tehching Hsieh and his work – 2 mins
2. Description of early work in Taiwan – 4 mins
3. Emigration to the United States and early US work – 5 mins
– Context of Manhattan at this time
4. In-depth descriptions of the four major pieces – 8 mins + (possibly 6 mins film)
– Cage Piece
– Time Clock Piece
– Outdoors Piece
– Rope Piece
5. Discussion of themes – 10 mins
– Time/Duration
– Commitment and Endurance
– Law and Contracts
– Bureaucracy and administration
– Issues of documentation
– Labor and work ethic
– Performance and Conceptual art, and the difficulty of categorizing
6. Other American artists working at this time – 3-5 mins
7. Description of No Art Piece and Thirteen Year Plan – 4 mins
8. Discussion of themes – 5 mins
– Absence
– Disappearance
– Trust, authority, and documentation
– Refusal to work/End of work
– Changes to Manhattan and American economy during this time.
9. Conclusion and Q&A – 4 mins

For more information please contact via email: [email protected].