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M+, Hong Kong, © Tehching Hsieh
Tehching Hsieh 謝德慶
Jump Piece 跳
1973/2017
Tehching Hsieh was originally trained as a painter and, after early experiments with painting, he moved to artwork focused on his body and temporality. In 1973, before the artist left Taiwan for the United States, he created one of his first performance art pieces by jumping from a first-floor window onto the concrete below. The act broke both of his ankles, and he was unable to walk for four months. Hsieh destroyed the film that recorded the jumping action, but the photographs documenting the fall remain. Six photographs— taken just before the jump and just after—underscore the time-based aspect of Jump Piece. The passage of time is a recurring motif in Hsieh’s practice. The artwork, highly charged with metaphorical resonance, signals the artist’s interest in physical and psychological endurance, ideas that would come to define his work. Jump Piece, along with Hsieh’s later career-defining, year-long performances, are influential examples of early performance art in which artists subjected themselves to various extreme or uncomfortable situations.
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