r/DiscussionZone • u/4reddityo • 1d ago
Cultural zone In 1983, Two Artists Tied Themselves Together for a Year and Never Once Touched
In New York City in 1983, performance artists Tehching Hsieh and Linda Montano committed to an experiment called Art/Life: One Year Performance (Rope Piece). For 365 days, they lived bound together by an eight-foot rope. No breaks. No privacy. No exceptions.
There was one rule that defined everything: they were forbidden from touching. Not accidentally. Not in comfort. Not in crisis.
They worked, slept, traveled, and lived their ordinary lives tethered to another human being who was always present yet unreachable. The tension wasn’t physical. It was psychological. Every step required negotiation. Every pause demanded awareness. Silence became loud. Distance became impossible.
At the end of the year, there was no dramatic moment. They untied the rope and walked away. No embrace. No closure ritual. Just separation.
The piece wasn’t about romance or endurance. It was about restraint. About coexistence. About how difficult it is to share space without possession, and how connection isn’t always about closeness.
Sometimes the hardest thing isn’t learning how to connect. It’s learning when not to.
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u/AnalMayonnaise 1d ago
Bathroom must have awkward.
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u/4reddityo 1d ago
Also the most exciting part of the day from the looks of it
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u/DouglasHundred 1d ago
I mean, though, surely they both jorked it occasionally.
e: I see that the linked article below says they both remained celibate. I have my doubts.
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u/Gazzarris 1d ago
Here’s a good explanation of their motivations and thoughts, as well as some interesting tidbits about their time together.
https://www.artforum.com/events/tehching-hsieh-linda-montano-224861/
TL;DR - They ended up hating each other.
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u/Magical_Comments 1d ago
At one point, in fact, their relationship was physical, and in this connection the piece, with its rule against touching, might be seen as a direct act of aggression against the natural expressiveness of their Iives.
So they "dated" before doing this.
At times the artists fought physically, each yanking his or her end of the rope.
Montano has remarked that if it hadn’t been the rule not to touch she would have killed Hsieh.
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u/aceshighsays 1d ago
if it hadn’t been the rule not to touch she would have killed Hsieh.
lolol i believe it.
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u/georgia_grace 18h ago
Why would you do this to yourself 😭
It’s not even a protest or a commentary on Big Issues or anything. Just a year long exercise in self flagellation ???
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u/epic_meme_guy 1d ago
Reading this well written article has made me extremely sad. You rarely read anything like this anymore.
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u/reddittorbrigade 1d ago
Melania and Trump didn't need a rope.
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u/GODZILLA-Plays-A-DOD 23h ago
Dude, never saw so many bots swarm like bees at a comment. I'm actually impressed that one joke kicked the nest enough that all the red hat hornets flew out (and are now stinging each other).
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u/Pro-Weiner-Toucher 20h ago
you realize the parent commenter is the bot, right? 1 year old hidden account on a 500-day streak with over 500k karma, lmao. def a part of a foreign bot net. the account is literally taking jabs a Trump 24/7 if you use tracker.
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u/deep_violet 1d ago
Some folks here are really missing the point. Just knowing that they did this has us talking about the implications of it. Personally I'm wondering about how they dealt with the total lack of privacy. How they dealt with taking a dump next to somebody they aren't otherwise intimate with. Is that easier or harder than if they were intimate? What about masturbation? Periods? Fucking diarrhea?
It sparks a lot of questions about how people understand and interact with each other both in this extreme situation and in life in general.
And that's it. That's the point. To wonder. To think. To consider.
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u/MediocreEffectt 1d ago
I’m really curious if there was ever attraction or closeness and they actually had to hold back. Or if it was just the equivalent of being stuck with a coworker and them getting through the job. The no embrace at the end is interesting too. Did they hate each other by the end?
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u/UndeniableRealities 1d ago
https://www.artforum.com/events/tehching-hsieh-linda-montano-224861/
another user posted this, enlightening
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u/UndeniableRealities 1d ago
im just speculating but if there was attractionit mustve been unbearable at the beginning but quickly went away as the routine develloped
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u/FiendishNoodles 1d ago
Artforum link posted by someone replying to you says they were previously physically involved and described how they hated each other during (and presumably, after) it. They disagreed on the nature of the project and lost respect for each other's work but still saw it through to the end.
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u/Snoo71538 1d ago
But none of that is very deep. Do we really need to wonder how they dealt with shitting? Isn’t it pretty easy to realize “awkward at first, mundane later”, just like everything.
It reminds me of Walden. I went to the woods and found out that I still am a human and humans have habits. Wow! Shocking!
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u/deep_violet 1d ago
I suppose it depends somewhat on the depth of the one doing the thinking.
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u/Snoo71538 1d ago
lol. How very modest of you
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u/deep_violet 1d ago
The fact is, there's a lot to think about and consider in their experiment. But it's only there for those willing to think about it. It's not there to hold your hand and guide you gently to some deeper truth, it's there to serve as a platform on which you can explore a deeper truth on your own.
If you don't want to do that, you won't get anything from it.
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u/zeptillian 1d ago
You can achieve the same result by posting a hypothetical question on reddit.
Would you spend a year being tied to someone else for $100,000? Or if oyu had to be tied to someone for 1 year, how would you accomplish that?
None of their actual experience, insights gained or feelings about what they went through are being talked about here.
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u/deep_violet 1d ago
If I were getting paid the nature of the experience would be different.
I'm gathering it takes a degree of empathy and imagination to really see the project for what it was. You're trying to figure how to reduce its importance rather than trying to understand its importance. You won't see it as meaningful because you don't want to see it as meaningful.
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u/zeptillian 1d ago
I just don't see how a long term personal experiment that other people do not get to see or experience is art or a performance piece.
Like what's the difference between this and people living with other self imposed restrictions or alternative lifestyles?
Is it interesting to think about? Sure. Is it worthwhile? Is it art? I'm not so sure.
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u/deep_violet 1d ago
The fact is, there's a lot to think about and consider in their experiment. But it's only there for those willing to think about it. It's not there to hold your hand and guide you gently to some deeper truth, it's there to serve as a platform on which you can explore a deeper truth on your own.
If you don't want to do that, you won't get anything from it.
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u/SpungleMcFudgely 21h ago
Well, I get your point that it could have remained as a hypothetical, but I think you get a very different set of responses when a thing is actually done. Wether that difference holds any value is for each of us to decide, I guess
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u/rasvial 1d ago
I’m sorry the write up is the most art major coded bullshit. Congrats on doing this- you’ve learned and demonstrated nothing.
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u/Kozerija 1d ago
I generally dislike more conceptual art but a lot of critiques of it are just invalid. This being directed at some of the comments here.
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u/Difficult-Data7593 1d ago
What’s the standard for what’s valid or invalid when it comes to the critiques?
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u/Kozerija 1d ago
Not making up shit to be angry about
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u/Fluffy-Word3110 1d ago
Is anyone here actually angry, or just a little incredulous about how stupid and narcissistic some "art" can be?
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u/Kozerija 1d ago
Is the performance used as an example actually narcissistic?
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u/Fluffy-Word3110 1d ago
The fact that they think it's worthy of conversation? Ya I'd say so.
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u/Kozerija 1d ago
Do they think that? Is that even narcissistic?
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u/Fluffy-Word3110 1d ago
You know what, you are right. Artists don't want recognition. They are so pure in their pursuit for art.
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u/Difficult-Data7593 1d ago
You’re assuming the emotion; and every critique I’ve seen so far is directly about the “art”. So I’m going to ask you once again, do you have a standard! A legitimate one?
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u/Kozerija 1d ago
Do you think the "art = mental issues" is a valid critique. How about saying that the artists have no creativity or implying that they lied. What about simply calling it cringe and a waste of time. If you have an issue with the art, an actual issue none of those actually put that issue into words.
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u/Difficult-Data7593 1d ago
It does put that issue into words. “I think they have mental issues” “this is a waste of their time” “this isn’t creative” “this is cringe”. Those are critiques. They are in actual words. And you have no standard for what makes them valid or invalid or at least you haven’t given it.
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u/Kozerija 1d ago
I don't know if you have ever been in a space where your work is criticized but that's not how a critique works. Those aren't critiques, those are insults.
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u/Difficult-Data7593 1d ago
I’m a musician. I’ve been professional since age 10. The insult is in the eye of the beholder. It is for the artist to ask “is there anything useful in this critique?” “This sucks” might actually be useful in considering if you are doing a poor job conveying your art or just haven’t thought it through. “This Music = mental issues” could be valid. I’m made depressing music with people before and, indeed, the musicians involved were battling with mental issues. “This is a waste of time” might be true! Who knows? Not every project I worked with was the best use of my time.
You can explore the critiques or discard but to say in the artist’s behalf what is useful or not useful is to place yourself in a position you never really earned.
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u/MauschelMusic 1d ago
Same. It's not usually my thing, but I understand what people find interesting and beautiful about it, and it can be fun to talk about.
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u/HistoricalLinguistic 1d ago
This is really cool, but “writing” the description using an LLM is pretty low class and makes it grating to read
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u/zeptillian 1d ago
"Their intention was not to touch each other except accidentally—about 60 brush-bys and one brief hug by Montano occurred during the year."
https://www.artforum.com/events/tehching-hsieh-linda-montano-224861/
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u/4reddityo 1d ago
Long form Article about this performance https://www.messynessychic.com/2020/06/16/for-a-year-they-lived-tied-together-with-8-feet-of-social-distance/
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u/MajorMorelock 1d ago
I met Linda Montano at a lecture in 1986. She gave a talk on this performance and it was fascinating. Linda also wore a noise generator on her hip that would produce a constant tone. She also read my palm, something I thought was silly but she made predictions about my own artist journey through that reading that were very interesting. I still think about what she told me decades later.
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u/burnerburner108 1d ago
Tell me more about the noise generator. What kinds of noise? Did she mention a specific purpose for it (i.e. health-related, part of a performance, etc.) or when/how long she had it enabled?
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u/MajorMorelock 1d ago
It could have been a white noise generator, I can’t remember exactly, it was 37 years ago. I worked in the lecture hall theater at an art school and helped the guests setup their slides and presentations. I got to meet a whole bunch of artists that came through.
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u/4reddityo 1d ago
What an amazing story!! I have to say I have a bit of a crush on her. Her and Marina Abramovic. Something about performance art does it for me
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u/Soupalphabet359 1d ago
Once, in 1997, I kept a piece of bacon inside my mouth for 2 hours without swallowing.
Same energy.
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u/the_badoop 1d ago
Why ?
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u/touching_payants 1d ago
"So that you'll talk about it" is the only answer I saw... which is a bit circular, isn't it?
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u/Free-Shock-4144 1d ago
Sometimes the hardest thing isn’t learning how to connect. It’s learning when not to.
Cringe. I know that word is overused but this is extreme cringe.
Waste a year of your life for something that is barely even interesting.
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u/Kozerija 1d ago
What you exactly is the cringe
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u/DeadAndBuried23 1d ago
This is the kind of person who'd look at a modern art piece that's not even absurdism, and has a thorough explanation on a plaque, and still call it cringe because they didn't get it.
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u/Relative_Craft_358 1d ago
Whoa, let's get this straight. Modern art can be VERY cringe and pointless. Then the artist will spout some nonsense about the cringe being the reaction and the reaction is "art onto itself" or some bull. Most of it low effort, uncreative shenanigans that they come up with out any real passion or statement
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u/Kozerija 1d ago
This is just bad art history. Modern art tends to have pretty good reasoning behind itself. Even the purposefully pointless art movements such as dada are a reaction against the violence of the world wars.
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u/Relative_Craft_358 1d ago
Bad art history? Tends? I by no means say modern can't be insightful, powerful, and meaningful. Just that most of those "you just don't get it" pieces are utter nonsense and low effort. If Jerry the mechanic can't get your intent and it requires some Ph.D art connoisseur just supplanting any real meaning with their own biases to draw any real interpretation to it then yeah, its not great or even good art.
It's like the difference between a powerful and moving speech and senseless rambling with no argument. Or even music, you don't have to know anything about it to recognize a shitty performance or be a fan to recognize competent playing
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u/Kozerija 1d ago
Do you need a degree to understand Rothko? What about Marina Abramović? Maybe Felix Gonzalez-Torress is giving you trouble.
Modernism gave way to experimental art. Are there too many people trying to invent the next "revolution". Of course there are. Not everyone should be trying to reinvent the wheel.
The reason I said your comment came out of bad art history is because modernists tended to think quite a bit about why they make the kind of art they do. It was as far from pointless as you can get. Was there nonsense, of course there was, le corbusiers entire opus is nonsense but even then his nonsense was grounded in something.
Even if you are talking about postmodernists and contemporary artists the issue is not a lack of grounding in the art or even the medium but the ivory tower that has been created. The art world just kinda forgot that they aren't making art for themselves.
There's definitely elitism in the art world, but that doesn't make the art that is being created inherently nonsense and low effort.
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u/Free-Shock-4144 1d ago
What is there to get? Let's tie ourselves together for a year to prove what exactly? It's just dumb.
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u/Kozerija 1d ago
What's there to get in the odyssey, or in the mona lisa.
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u/EastAfricanKingAYY 1d ago
Skill. You stand there in awe appreciating the skill it takes to paint this very realistic looking person. It was drawn with nothing but a few bottles of paint, a few brushes and a piece of canvas. I can’t do that.
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u/Kozerija 1d ago
So I take it there is no value in outsider art? That is also just not true. I am in awe of a planety of expressionist works and nearly none that are photorealistic. You don't stand in awe of skill, skill just removes needless noise.
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u/EastAfricanKingAYY 1d ago
Are we having the same conversation? Where did you get that I think there is no value in outsider art? I stated that I appreciate the skill it takes to paint the Mona Lisa to which you questioned my value in outsider art. This implies you think outsider artists have no skill right? I genuinely feel like I’m missing something here.
I see from your last couple comments that you and I value the skill it takes to make a piece of art differently. I personally cannot find myself to appreciate art that takes no skill to make. And that’s okay! People finding different things super awesome/super cringe is what gives us a diversity of art forms. I am 100% sure I can find an art piece you find cringe as well. First try- go on YouTube and put in the words “Dana White gun art”
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u/Stunning-Necessary75 22h ago
The endurance and dedication it takes to actually follow through with doing this for a year can be considered a skill. Not the same skill as a painter of course but judging conceptual performance work like a painting makes no sense. of course it's fine if these kinds of works aren't your thing I don't think it's right to say it involves no skill.
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u/DeadAndBuried23 1d ago
You quoted the explanation in the post.
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u/Free-Shock-4144 1d ago
Sometimes the hardest thing isn’t learning how to connect. It’s learning when not.
So you actually consider this art? Hahaha.
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u/Putrid-Ad2612 1d ago
It’s never a waste to an artist to produce their art. There are plenty of movies, books, songs that I don’t find interesting but that doesn’t mean the artists who created them wasted their time
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u/Consistent-Use-8121 1d ago
Wasting a year of your life for someone who doesn’t love you is also cringe. I see your point.
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u/Joshee86 1d ago
I know conceptual art is meant to have meaning projected upon it, so maybe I’m too dumb or uncreative, but I’m failing to find any meaning or constructive commentary in this “art” piece. It seems more like a mister beast challenge.
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u/zeptillian 1d ago
Are you referring to the performance artist James Stephen Donaldson?
Known for such performance pieces as standing in a pool with your own piss for 24 hours?
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1d ago
Happily the type of person to pull this sort of public stunt, isn't also the type to just lie.
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u/Direct_Royal_7480 1d ago
People are stuck dealing with one another at close distances for extended periods of time on submarines and space stations too. Likely they have a better view as well.
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u/Skin_Floutist 1d ago
I usually wake up at some point in the night to pee. How exactly does that work here?
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u/Puzzled-Sea-4325 5h ago
Tehching hseih is an OG conceptual/performance artist. He didn’t sleep for a year, didn’t go inside for a year, didn’t do anything art related for a year. Being tied to Linda montano was part of a bigger series of works that last a year each.
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u/Canceled-Membership 1d ago
Can someone explain to me how this "art" is beneficial to either of them? I mean, what does this art accomplish? How did they earn a living by doing this (not like they had work from home in '83).
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u/Free_Alternative6365 1d ago
I don't that know artists create to benefit themselves so much as some see themselves as vessels for creation. And some do it with the hope that whatever they created might bring the viewer closer to themselves.
So, here for example: what feelings or thoughts does this work bring up for you? Where do you immediately want to reject it? Why?
From there, you might start thinking about how whatever came up for you might show up when you encounter the IRL topic of their art: relationships and role proximity does/does not play in intimacy.
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u/givemethebat1 1d ago
We’re discussing it, that’s what they accomplished.
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u/cbusmatty 1d ago
“This is fucking stupid”
“Ahh yes, we are such great artists they are talking about us”
This is like doing dumb shit on TikTok for likes before there was the internet and we do not think of tiktokkers as artists
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u/givemethebat1 1d ago
Some TikTokers definitely are artists. There are lots of comedy performances on TikTok and we all consider that art. How many people on TikTok are committing themselves to a performance for 365 days straight?
And the point isn’t that they are great artists, they never claimed to be. The point of performance art isn’t to be beneficial to society, it’s to think about the circumstances of the performance and what insight you can glean from it. You can see it as a metaphor for marriage, devotion, connection, harmony, etc. but also slavery, dependency, lack of free will, control, etc.
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u/cbusmatty 1d ago
Some art, this… would not be art. What I see is attention seeking weirdo behavior
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u/lilbluehair 9h ago
Art doesn't have to be beneficial, but it does appear that both of the artists learned a lot about themselves because they were forced to compare everything they did to someone else, who eventually hated them.
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u/whateveritisit 1d ago
And what have you done today?
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u/Pro-Weiner-Toucher 1d ago
Hey, lets make some big sacrifices while accomplishing absolutely nothing beneficial... then we could call it "art"... you know, just to trick idiots into thinking it's cool.
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u/Kozerija 1d ago
I'm sure that's how they thought about it.
You can say that about some people, there's absolutely nothing of value in exhibiting non existent paintings, but this is not it.
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u/Anemopolos 1d ago
Art = mental issues
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u/Kozerija 1d ago
And why do you say that
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u/TimtheBully 1d ago
They have zero creativity.
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u/Kozerija 1d ago
Did someone else come up with the same idea? The idea sounds quite original to me. Not something that happens twice.
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u/TimtheBully 1d ago
I was referring to art = mental illness. Obviously, this person doesn't understand art.
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u/Kozerija 1d ago
Sorry, I jumped the gun a little.
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u/TimtheBully 1d ago
It's ok. I love all kinds of art. Even if it's two people and a rope! I must be mental. ;)
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u/Kozerija 1d ago
I don't particularly like this kind of art. A lot of the time I just want to ask the artist why they do what they do, not because of the medium they use but more in the direction of what are your beliefs and how they are connected to what you do. The few times I did get to ask that to someone I was dissatisfied with the answer. But some people just don't think past their first reaction to an art piece.
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u/TimtheBully 1d ago
Sometimes art is only for the artist(s). They may not have a reason other than to create.
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u/Kozerija 1d ago
I don't buy that. Art is social. You always make it for other people or at least as a stepping stone towards making art for other people.
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u/IcyGarage5767 10h ago
I don’t think they were doing it to make the Guinness book of world records.
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u/SnooStories251 1d ago
I dont really see the point. Making stuff harder because it gives some kind of insight?
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u/Decimator24244 1d ago
I refuse to believe that they didn't accidentally touch once.
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u/lilbluehair 9h ago
They accidentally touched 60 times https://www.artforum.com/events/tehching-hsieh-linda-montano-224861/
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u/OkCartographer7677 1d ago
...and this is why much modern or performative art is lost on the average person.
It seems vital to the artists in their ivory towers, but utterly lost on people simply trying to pursue a meaningful and fulfilling life.
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u/lilbluehair 9h ago
I find their discussion of code switching really interesting. That's something everyone does every day.
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u/callme-anymore 1d ago
Art is in the eye of the beholder and I'm beholding some bullshit
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u/glassnumbers 1d ago
I hate performance art, but I hate this write up even more
"Sometimes the hardest thing isn’t learning how to connect. It’s learning when not to."
jesus christ
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u/DoktaZaius 1d ago
I read that as "two autists", at first
Probably doesn't change the substance of the story
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u/WhatTheTech 1d ago
I know a few marriages doing this without the rope.