Your name
Yi Hsuan Lai
Place of birth
Taiwan
Place where you live now
New York
3 words to describe you
Cat, delightful, air hockey
Why do you take pictures?
I use photography as a site where body, material, and space come into negotiation, allowing something unstable but precise to emerge. It becomes a way for me to translate sensory experience into an embodied one and to explore the in-between of the physical and psychological, the real and the virtual. Through staging the materials and body, I feel the action of taking photos claims a sense of place for the sentient being.
Where do you get your inspiration?
I get inspiration from walking through the city, noticing overlooked corners and how objects and environments come together in different configurations. I often photograph those encounters, and the images become a kind of mind map for my sculptural ideas for staged photographs. Through collecting or handling the materials, forms begin to emerge intuitively from their color, texture, and shape.I also get inspiration from conversations with friends, where exchanging thoughts and feedback keeps ideas flowing.
Who are your influences?
I am influenced by artists Lucas Blalock and Penelope Umbrico, not only for their work but also for how they show what it means to be an artist and to evolve constantly. I am also deeply informed by 1970s feminist art, in which artists like Rebecca Horn and Valie Export used their bodies as primary materials and sites for structural extension. This lineage connects to the visceral textures of Eva Hesse and Alina Szapocznikow, as well as the psychological staging of Jimmy DeSana and David Cronenberg. Beneath it all, I find foundational inspiration in the experimental spirit of Man Ray, Duchamp, Surrealism, and Cubism.
What determines the subject matter you choose?
My subject is shaped by my experience of emigration, which led me to explore how the body navigates instability and constructs a sense of belonging. I use materials as bodily surrogates, where objects merge with and reshape their surroundings, giving rise to physical and psychological states. The work often oscillates between image and object, and between two and three dimensions. I also explore more fluid and liberated expressions of femininity, reconfiguring suppressed emotions through bodily transformation.
What impact would you like your art to have?
I invite a sense of feeling that fluctuates between the uncanny and a deep intimacy. This is an opening to rethink the body, the object, and femininity, stirring emotions that are felt directly in the gut.
What artwork do you never get bored with?
Philip Guston’s paintings.
Is there anything you want to add?
I feel like guardian angels speak to me when I’m half asleep and half awake in the morning.
