One Year Performance 
Sam Hsieh
Void
English
Hardcover with an inserted artist statement
Edition of 750
736 pages
175 x 235 mm
2025
ISBN 9786185479411
On 30 September 1978, Tehching Hsieh began the first in a series of extraordinary One Year Performances that would make him a regular name in the New York art scene. He sealed himself in a purpose-built cage in his studio and remained there in solitary confinement without any communication for 365 days. His friend, Cheng Wei Kuong, helped facilitate the work by taking care of his food, clothing and refuse, and by taking the daily portraits which make up this book.
This work, ‘One Year Performance 1978-1979’ (‘Cage Piece’), was unprecedented in its use of physical difficulty over extreme durations. As well as being in solitary confinement, Hsieh’s self-imposed list of rules forbade him from reading, writing, listening to the radio or watching television. The artist opened his studio to a public audience on 19 days out of 365, but even on these days he remained unresponsive and avoided eye contact. The strict rules of the work piled deprivation on deprivation, consigning him to a life of unadulterated and unarticulated thought.
(Source: https://void.photo/one-year-performance-1978-1979)
About the Artist
Tehching Hsieh was born in 1950 in Nan-Chou, Taiwan. Hsieh dropped out from high school in 1967 and took up painting. After finished compulsory military service (1970 – 73), Hsieh had his first solo show at the gallery of the American News Bureau in Taiwan. Shortly after this he stopped painting entirely and began making a series of works dealing with action and its serial traces in documents, culminating in Jump, a work in which he recorded his fall from a second story window, breaking both of his ankles. Hsieh trained as a seaman, working on oil tankers, which he then used as a means to enter the United States in July 1974. He was an undocumented worker in the States for fourteen years until he was granted amnesty and citizenship in 1988. Starting in the late 1970s, Hsieh made a series of five extraordinary One Year Performances. In the unfolding series of these projects Hsieh moved from a year of solitary confinement in a cage without any communication; to a year in which he punched a worker’s time clock in his studio on the hour every hour; to a year spent living without any shelter on the streets of Manhattan; to a year in which he was tied closely to the artist Linda Montano without touching, and lastly, to a year of total abstention from art activities and influences.
https://www.tehchinghsieh.net/
(Source: https://www.tehchinghsieh.net/biography)
About the Publisher
Void is an independent publishing house dedicated to photography books and education. The project is driven by its founders Myrto Steirou and João Linneu. You might bump into Myrto, Void’s editor, at a book fair or festival in a far flung part of the globe, but you’ll usually find her in Greece, at their store in Athens. João, Void’s designer, is based in Reykjavík… it’s entirely possible that you may not meet him (in person at least). Void works with both established and up-and-coming artists, proudly fostering photographers’ debut books.
Void has collaborated with many international art institutions since we started, back in October 2016. In 2021 Void became one of Futures Photography’s members. Void is devoted to and passionate about the projects they undertake. In their books, you will find powerful stories and innovative design, melded together with fine and experimental material.
void.photo
(Source: https://void.photo/contact)
