For his One Year Performances, Hsieh worked outside the art world’s sanctioned spaces and used methods borrowed from a legal framework. For ‘Cage Piece’, each joint of the cage was sealed by attorney Robert Projansky, who also provided a witness statement at the end of the year attesting that Hsieh had remained in the locked cage for the full duration. Daily portraits taken by his friend Cheng Wei Kuong provide further evidence of his presence in front of the camera each day. Hsieh shaved his head at the start of the performance and allowed his hair to grow out naturally, so the daily portraits also reveal the passing of time.
‘One Year Performance 1978-1979’ is the first book to focus solely on ‘Cage Piece’ and presents each of the daily portraits on a full page in chronological order.
