EXHIBITED:
Performance 1: Tehching Hsieh , Museum of Modern Art, New York, January 21–May 18, 2009

ILLUSTRATED:
Adrian Heathfield & Tehching Hsieh, Out of Now: The Lifeworks of Tehching Hsieh , Live Art Development Agency, London; MIT Press, Cambridge, USA, 2009
Adrian Heatherfield & Tehching Hsieh, Out of Now: The Lifeworks of Tehching Hsieh , Taipei Fine Arts Museum; Art & Collection Group, Taipei, 2011, color illustrated, pp. 72-74 & p. 87

In 2009, MoMA launched a pioneering new series focused on contemporary art's most volatile form. The first exhibition, Performance 1: Tehching Hsieh, introduced the Taiwan- born, New York City-based performance art master Tehching Hsieh through the records and remnants of his seminal "Cage Piece" (1978-79).

In this performance, which lasted from September 30, 1978 through September 29, 1979, Tehching Hsieh locked himself in a wooden cage, furnished only with a wash basin, lights, a pail, and a single bed. During the year, he was not allowed to talk, to read, to write, or to listen to radio and TV. A lawyer notarized the entire process and made sure the artist never left the cage during that one year. A friend came daily to deliver food, remove the artist's waste, and take a single photograph to document the project. In addition, this performance was open to be viewed daily from 11am to 5pm. After one full year passed, he have left the signs which he marked on the walls to count the days.

The artist took both time-based art and personal deprivation to new extremes. The curator of Hsieh's solo show at MoMA, Jenny Schlenzka stated: "Hsieh's works stand out for their enormous duration and the great physical strain they demand. With rigorous discipline and endurance, the artist created situations in which life and art became simultaneous. In his work, the conventional distinction between artistic time and lived time becomes meaningless. "