What is the use of Xie Deqing's performance art to society?

Xie Deqing's art media is not words, sounds and pigments, but his own life. His works include 1978 to 1986' s five "One Year's Behavior" and 1986 to 1999' s performance art "The Good Earth". Every behavior contains a special statement, a special constraint and a special way of existence. They are carefully recorded in a way suitable for the content. Although Xie never explained the reasons for his creation in detail, every work implicitly raised profound questions about life, art, existence and the significance of our living in this world. Regarding the first one-year informal behavior called cage, Xie Deqing kept himself in a cage made by himself in his attic for a whole year, just like living in a prison. No one talks to him, he can't read or listen, and he has nothing to do but think and count the sun (right). He makes a mark on the wall every day, takes pictures of himself and records this suffering. An assistant brought him food and cleaned up the garbage, but they never talked.

The first year's behavior is about loneliness and isolation. It questions the inherent boundary between identity and existence. Xie Deqing let himself face the bottom line of survival: lack of food, clothing, housing and transportation, lack of social interaction, material enjoyment and entertainment opportunities. We rely on communication with others and external nourishment and stimulation to support our lives. How much can a person give up to survive? What do you mean by reducing to the lowest range? What does it mean to think without communication opportunities and thinking records? As an illegal immigrant (at that time), Xie Deqing's experience as a stranger in new york may inspire his performance art. Of course, this work also resonates with the situation of political prisoners imprisoned all over the world. But Xie Deqing's willingness to accept such a bad situation left people with a sense of mystery and anxiety.

The second one-year art is called time film. Xie Deqing inserted the working time card into the clock to mark the time. Hour after hour, 24 hours a day, day after day, a whole year. An observer confirmed the daily time card. "In order to show the progress of time," Xie Deqing cut her hair before the work began, and then let her hair grow naturally during that time. Every time he punches in (left), the camera takes a frame. Finally, the film compresses every day into one second, which is about six minutes a year.

The second behavior focuses on the nature of time. In essence, we are all a drop in the ocean. However, we seldom pay attention to the passage of time itself. We tend to think about time according to the activities of filling time, or passively think about time when we have to wait or want to get something right away. Xie Deqing abandoned all the contents and situations in his behavior in order to experience the process of pure time passing. By pushing the habit of equating time with work in our society to the extreme, he finished his work. Xie Deqing uses a clock, which is a kind of equipment used in the workplace. It mechanically divides time into accurate equal parts, and judges people's performance coldly by measuring time consumption. Xie Deqing takes punching in as his job, not measuring all kinds of jobs by clock (time). In this process, the process of excluding any special content itself became the only purpose of his labor. By pushing the materialization of time in our life to the extreme, Xie Deqing re-reveals an internal experience of time, a pure and quiet sense of "continuity".

In the third one-year activity called "Outdoor Sketch", Xie Deqing lived outdoors for a whole year. During this year, he never entered any building or roofed structure. For most of the year, he walks aimlessly in lower Manhattan (below) and occasionally contacts his friends by pay phone. Every day, he records the places he walked on the map and marks the places where he ate and slept.

The third behavior is regarded as the opposite of the first behavior. Not only indoors, Xie Deqing tried to open outdoor space for himself. Self can wither because of exposure, or die because of closure. In this work, Xie Deqing throws himself into a wandering state and becomes a tramp. He tested his ability to survive in the environment. These situations are usually beyond his control. What is the essence of housing? Whether symbolic or material, why are people's needs so basic? How does a person's place of residence play a role in determining his identity? What will happen if a person is forced to live without these basic things? Once homeless, a person becomes nobody. Do such homeless people feel free besides being deprived? There are many homeless people in new york who have to live on the streets, but what does it mean for Xie Deqing to share their plight consciously?

Xie Deqing's fourth year's behavior, subtitled Art/Life, was a collaboration with Linda Montano. In a year's time, the two of them were connected by a rope about 2.43 meters long (below). At the same time, they try to avoid actual contact, so as to maintain their sense of space. Xie Deqing and Montano didn't know each other before they started their work. But in the first year of work, they never separated. By taking photos and recording tapes, they recorded their time together every day.

The art of the fourth year makes us think about how interpersonal relationships work. The first and third one-year behaviors show the self that is isolated or opposed to the world. This work explores the boundaries of intimacy. What makes two independent people husband and wife? How do they face another person and the world around them? What does it mean for them to stay close for so long? How do we discuss our needs for this kind of contact (where they are tied together) and privacy (where they actually have no contact)? Where do I end and where do others start? How close can two people keep in touch and how strange can both sides feel?

Xie Deqing's fifth and last one-year behavior, in a sense, is a denial of the previous four performance arts. It took him a whole year to leave art-under any circumstances, he would not do art, talk about art, read art, or participate in art in any other way. More precisely, Xie Deqing was "walking in life" that year. Unlike previous years, this year's written records are very few. Since he didn't do anything special, there is nothing to record.

The fifth behavior is still very important because it presents the first few behaviors in a perspective way. After being named art, how will the experience and experience change? How to distinguish art from daily life? All Xie Deqing's creations revolve around these problems. In a sense, creation is an effort to make art and life harmonious. But does this mean that after being transformed into artistic creation, life will be beautified and given special richness and significance? Or after being absorbed into the warp and weft of daily life, art lost its mystery and was exiled to the world? There are other unexpected accidental problems that make it impossible to double the perfection of life or creation. Things will never go as planned. So in the second act, Xie Deqing missed a few punches because he overslept; In the third act, he was arrested for fighting and forced to enter the room for several hours. In the fourth act, he accidentally contacted Montano several times. By marking the subtle defects of these arts (also works of art) and creating an art of "just living", Xie Deqing was able to reflect on these dilemmas.

Life on Earth is the last project of Xie Deqing, which lasted the longest, from the 36th birthday to the 49th birthday. It is recorded, unlike the fifth act; But unlike the first four, its records only happen in retrospect. When Xie Deqing announced this work, he said that he would do fine arts, but only in secret. It was not until the end of the matter that he revealed the content and intention of the act. Only then did he say, "I'm still alive." He did it, and it continued into the Millennium.

"earthly life" does not require the realization of specific conditions like the first four behaviors, nor does it negate specific conditions like the fifth one-year behavior. More precisely, simple existence-survival, persistence and continuity-has become the goal that artists should confirm. This creation did nothing but unconsciously repeat everything that happened in Xie Deqing's daily life. In this way, Xie Deqing redefined the relationship between art and life. "Secular world" implies another way to review all Xie Deqing's past creations. But no matter how unusual the work Xie Deqing has to do, the most important thing in each of his works is that through their repetition and integration into daily affairs, these works become as ordinary as anything else. Perhaps this is the most important change.

Xie Deqing's creation makes us fall into endless meditation. It asks difficult questions, but it doesn't provide any answers. Xie Deqing's behavior did not clarify any theory or any definite concept. On the contrary, they take themselves as an example to concretize their problems. No matter what Xie Deqing cares about is loneliness and isolation, or the boundary of self and the relationship between self and others, or the way our life is embedded in time and space, he always tries to grasp these problems as concretely as possible. He not only thinks about these fundamental dilemmas, but also experiences their true density, joy and terror. This requires incredible restraint and dedication. But it also requires extraordinary conscious will: devote yourself completely to time, opportunity and material. Stubbornly persist in transcending reality and refuse to be limited to a bunch of existing ideas about reality. This is the essence of Xie Deqing's art.

Every action of Xie Deqing is a separate event: an action or a series of actions are carried out in a specific space and a specific time. Now that these actions have been completed, they cannot be repeated or repeated. All that's left is traces and remains. These traces exist in several forms: there are all the ideas triggered by Xie Deqing's works, such as those expressed in this essay; These behaviors are strictly recorded, including posters, photos, videos and artists' statements, all of which are kept on a DVD-ROM. This large amount of evidence is extremely important, because Xie Deqing's creation is incomplete without witness. Of course, no one can know the artist's inner experience, and all he can do is accept it. When he performed six works, there was a huge gap between the artist and the audience face to face, but one side was necessary for the other. But if these behaviors are to be recorded in the world, they cannot be completely hidden. They have to face the outside world while introspecting, and they need to witness besides performing. It's like a tree falling in the forest: someone must hear it fall. Xie Deqing showed us his artistic talent, and we are the witnesses of his art. As witnesses, we make art possible by accepting it. There is a huge gap between artists and audiences when they face each other, but one side is necessary for the other.

In the past, artists used to create wonderful works with the vision and genius skills of their own artists or musicians, providing us with audio-visual entertainment and shocking our hearts.

In the 20th century, great changes have taken place in modern art, among which the biggest changes are the emergence of conceptual art and performance art. Many artists no longer use brushes and paper canvases to create, but use their own bodies, lives and even lives to create. The boundaries between art and philosophy, art and life, thinking in images and conceptual thinking become blurred, and the boundaries between spirit and flesh are torn. A series of philosophical problems of art have been faced by art historians, aestheticians and even philosophers, and traditional theories have fallen into an embarrassing situation of being helpless in the face of new artistic phenomena.

Xie Deqing is a "world champion" in the field of conceptual art. His performance art creation is beyond our reach, and neither can we. It is a miracle that Xie Deqing can still live like a normal person without mental breakdown after completing his series of behaviors. Xie Deqing and his artistic creation have aroused widespread concern in contemporary psychology and behavioral medicine, and become an unavoidable obstacle to contemporary art research and philosophical research.

1996, published by Hunan Fine Arts Publishing House & gt Xie Deqing introduced it in a book (probably this name, small format 16k, color map). At that time, he introduced three kinds of one-year behaviors, that is, being locked in a cage for one year, punching in every hour for one year, and not entering any building for one year.

Last year, I heard that he got married in Sichuan, China. He said that his final work was: I will never do performance art again in my life!

It is also painful to suppress creative desire, but it seems worthwhile to suppress it with a happy family with a wife and children.