One Year at a Time: Sam Hsieh’s Annual Acts

ONE YEAR PERFORMANCE by SAM HSIEH 1978 OCT m asai m w121 4 s ) mi 31 0 2 2 2 s2182 0 NOV s DEC 1979 JAN 2 FEB 0 2 MAR 22 a 2 APR .29(. 12 292s 9W2.2 2223 22 29 2229 2 MAY 2 JUNE ( JULY 72,9299222 2 S 2 22 9 5 2 9 9 222 29 22 29 2 28 2, 22 2. AUG SEPT ( .2s 2922 222229292922 * Opi p-i.9k9. - Sqpr.M. 30 1975. 16: * CSig pd....9. Sqfr25, 79799 6;00. . * 9. .. tpbi - dnk. c.dd 6.- 1100... :00 p.. ]I IHUDS ST ZR N.Y.C. 1 I *013 ONE YEAR AT A SE AN A BARRY KAHN 40 A olv by .4 4 2ZIR. i't ep ONE F,A by S) On September 30, 1978, Sam Hsieh began a year of solitary confinement inside an 11'-6" x 9' x 8' cell which he built within his studio. "I shall not converse, read, write, listen to the radio or watch television until I unseal myself." A friend, Cheng Wei Kwang, took charge of his food, clothing, and waste. At 5:00 p.m. on April 11, 1980, Sam Hsieh punched in on a standard industrial time clock he had installed in his studio, an act which he repeated every hour on the hour until 6:00 p.m. on April 11, 1981. And on Saturday September 26, 1981, Sam Hsieh began his third one year performance: "I shall stay outdoors for one year, never go inside. I shall not go in to [sic] a building, subway, train, car, airplane, ship, cave, tent. I shall have a sleeping bag," his statement said. "Prisoner," Worker," "Derelict"-by freely choosing, as I conceivably could, to live in circumstances I avoid thinking about, Hsieh forces me to identify with him and thus with those whose living conditions he adopts. Using real time-a year at a time-and real deprivation, he makes me internalize his experience. In a world where metaphors and symbols have lost their power, he has invented a very effective means of communication. Hsieh's earlier works, Leap (to the ground out of a second story window), Horseshit (immersed in a barrelful), Throwup (a Chinese dinner into a kulicke frame), Paint Stick (incise his cheek along a red line), and One-half Ton (of sheet rock dropped on to his back), relate to Chris Burden's Shot in the Arm and self mutilations of '60s body art. They show him responsive to his surroundings : he leaped from his studio window which is around the corner from the New York City police horse barracks, eats Chinese food, uses artists' materials, and has worked remodelling lofts. "Prisoner," "Worker," and "Derelict" come from the world around him by the same process which leads him from one piece to the next. Risking permanent physical damage and inflicting pain on himself, Hsieh gains willful control over his natural instincts. In these works the courage to act is everything; the gesture, photographed and videotaped, is merely proof. His one year performances are a breakthrough, emphasizing the mental over the physical. Requiring continuing discipline and selfconfidence , their execution becomes an ongoing personal exploration. I should qualify Hsieh's term "one year performance," which rings false in my ear as I write. He arranges visiting times during his performances, when his private activities and documentation are made public. Punching his time clock for the last time in his "Worker" piece, he turned to the assembled crowd and said: "Thank you, I like to show my film now." He had exposed one 16mm. frame after each punch of the time clock; the hands of time whirred, his hair, shaved when he began, grew to shoulder length and he jiggled in place. He carefully crafts each piece, using signed paper seals and a witnessing lawyer to avoid any suspicion of cheating. As he began his year outdoors he told me: "It is not possible for someone to witness, follow me all the time. If I did this piece before I did the cage piece, people might not believe me, but now they believe me." Obviously his audience matters...