A landmark retrospective reveals a radical practice built entirely on time and lived experience.
A First Complete Retrospective at Dia Beacon
Dia Beacon is presenting Tehching Hsieh Lifeworks 1978 to 1999, the first comprehensive retrospective dedicated to the Taiwanese American artist’s durational performances. The exhibition brings together all five of Hsieh’s One Year Performances alongside his monumental Thirteen Year Plan, marking the first time these works are shown collectively. Several pieces, including Rope Piece and the Thirteen Year Plan, are being exhibited for the first time.
Time as the Ultimate Medium
At the core of Hsieh’s practice is an uncompromising commitment to duration, defined by the passage of a full year rather than traditional artistic metrics. Key works include Cage Piece, in which Hsieh lived alone in a wooden cage for an entire year, and Time Clock Piece, where he punched a time clock every hour without exception for twelve months. These performances collapsed the boundary between art and daily existence, turning endurance itself into the work.
Art Life and Long Term Viewing
Other works on view include Outdoor Piece, created while Hsieh lived on the streets of New York without shelter, and Rope Piece, a collaboration with Linda Montano that required the artists to remain tied together by a rope for a year without touching. The exhibition is organized around an architectural model developed by Hsieh to visualize periods of art time and the intervals between them. Tehching Hsieh Lifeworks 1978 to 1999 is currently on long term view at Dia Beacon with no set closing date.
