The Artist is often asked how much he suffered to make the piece. He replied that he didn’t suffer. I have pleasure to do the piece. Some who have written about Time Clock Piece point out how exhausted the Artist looks. Yet when Alice looks closely at the Artist’s face — in the film, in the photo stills — she doesn’t see it. What she sees is the will of a man stitching himself into time. Only after the piece was completed was the Artist disconsolate. He felt that way after all his pieces ended, he said, because it meant returning to the life of an ordinary man.
from ACTIVITIES OF DAILY LIVING by Lisa Chen.
“beguiling and brilliant” -Viet Thanh Nguyen
“fiercely honest, and exhilarating” -Claire Messud
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![[VIRTUAL] In Conversation: Lisa Hsiao Chen and Anelise Chen](https://aaww.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Winter-2022-Programs-for-Website-9.png)
in 2018, Lisa Chen, Anelise Chen, and I had the great honor of visiting the maestro refusenik, undocumented but amnestied immigrant, godfather of performance art, and secular saint Tehching Hsieh at his Brooklyn studio. this was for The Believer, and here’s the interview that resulted. Here’s my favorite part:
Tehching Hsieh: In the beginning I couldn’t meet your kind of people. Your kind of people would say, “What is this guy, a stranger, an illegal?” Because your kind of people—this is the first time I’ve been interviewed by your kind of people in 42 years.
BLVR: Really? Wait, what do you mean, us “kind of people”?
TH: Asian American. [Laughter.] You get it! This is the first time. I’m not trying to make it an issue.
BLVR: You say this is the first time Asian Americans are interviewing you, which I find both surprising and not, but, you should know, for us, you are a very important precedent, a groundbreaker.
TH: I just wanted to say that it’s come late. Forty-two years late.