On Tehching Hsieh’s Disappearance: Interrupting the Prevailing Narratives of the Artworld

Abstract

In the Clinton Hill neighbourhood of Brooklyn, New York, sits a nondescript eatery called The Market. The restaurant, like many small New York City restaurants, is unremarkable. Little evidence exists to capitalize on the reputation of its owner, famed performance artist Tehching Hsieh. This article examines Tehching Hsieh’s The Market as a continuation of the artist’s renowned oeuvre to consider how the restaurant might represent Hsieh’s lifelong negotiation of the boundary between art and life. By examining the restaurant as a continuation of Hsieh’s work, I consider how understandings of Hsieh’s life and work are constructed upon binaries of immigrant idealism and art world genius, which exemplify the tension between artistry and livelihoods. In arguing that The Market represents a full collapse of art and life, I consider how the restaurant both refuses such binaries and continues the interrogations of labour, withdrawal, and repetition that are present in Hsieh’s lifeworks.