Migration in Dialogue – Yi Hsuan Lai
Yi Hsuan Lai, Olympic Ping Pong Table, 2023. Archival inkjet print, 8 x10". Courtesy of the artist.
As part of IMPULSE’s interview series, Migration in Dialogue, writer and artist Alyssa Monte spoke with Taiwanese-born, lens-based artist Yi Hsuan Lai.
AM: Please tell me a little about yourself and your background as an artist working in the United States.
YHL: I moved from Taiwan to New York in 2017 to pursue an MFA in photography, video, and related media at the School of Visual Arts (SVA). The program expanded my understanding of lens-based art, incorporating digital manipulation, AI, and video. I also explored sculpture and performance in the fine arts department and discovered my passion for hand-making art pieces. My first project involved using discarded materials to create costumes that camouflaged my body in constructed environments for self-portraits. My interest in making things from scratch and building scenes from imagination is rooted in my staged photography practice.
AM: Would you walk me through the process of acquiring an O-1 visa, allowing you to work as an artist in the United States?
YHL: I started on an F1 student visa when I came to the United States for school, which gave you a three-year stay. After graduation, there was one additional OPT year. After that, as an artist and photographer, I chose to apply for an O-1B artist visa. You will be granted three years of stay. The application requires evidence of your achievement, including exhibition records, proof of national or international acclaim, and recommendation letters from professionals in your field.
AM: Has the visa acquisition process influenced your art or the way you relate to the art world?
YHL: I still cannot make work that’s not meaningful to me, no matter if this visa is chasing me for constant achievements. I do feel the pressure – I can’t stop, like a hamster on a wheel. I need to always be applying to things because three years is so short. You need to work really hard. You need to apply to renew your visa 6–8 months before it expires. In the beginning, when I had just graduated from my MFA program, even knowing that some residencies or shows seemed questionable or feeling skeptical because they charged way too much money for what they could provide, I had to apply anyway because I needed those credits. I know those places take advantage of artists, and I’m displeased about that.
However, there are pros and cons to the visa. It pushes you to make decisions and put in consistent effort toward making your work. It gives you an opportunity to look back and reflect every three years, making you ask, “What was my progress?”
Yi Hsuan Lai, Something Happened, 2022. Archival inkjet print, 16.25 x 21.625". Courtesy of the artist.
AM: Do you think it’s easier or harder for artists in your niche to obtain the O-1 visa?
YHL: Each profession has its challenges. How your lawyer can assist you to package and find out the best way to represent your portfolio also matters. The combination of working in fine art and the commercial field of photography provides me with different credits for achieving the criteria that the O1 visa requires.
AM: Does the current political climate affect your feelings about staying/working in the US?
YHL: The political situation does worry me. However, I choose to stay here because I think this place (New York) can nurture my art practice — I want to stay here.
Yi Hsuan Lai, Needless to say, 2024. Dye sublimation print mounted on Sintra, paint, 24 x 32 x 1". Courtesy of the artist.
AM: Has being in the United States impacted the work you are making?
YHL: As the only one in my family living in the US, the uncertainty of life and the longing for a sense of placement have shaped my visual language and the fluid narratives/meanings of my work. I value my body and its messages as core materials and subjects in my work. This is evident in pieces like A Cactus in the Chimney, an early self-portrait where I use costumes to camouflage myself in a constructed environment, and Corporeal Signal, where handmade sculptures and my body create bizarre configurations between the real and the fictional. Ongoing Narratives examines the intersection of objecthood and bodily projection. The visceral quality of my work is my way of breaking the boundaries of race and language.
Yi Hsuan Lai, Cave, 2024. Dye sublimation print mounted on Sintra, 16.5 x 21.625 x1". Courtesy of the artist.
AM: Can you speak further about the themes that you tend to gravitate towards in your work?
YHL: My work echoes my personal journey of emigration and comes from the experience of my female identity. The consistent shifting in organic forms and shapes responds to my emotions, embodying my subject with bodily transformation. My work evokes visceral responses and introspection, transforming objects into new entities with altered meanings. When I am creating work, even though I have a brief idea of how I want to construct something, I don’t know what the assemblage will be like in the final stage or what the photograph will look like. It’s a lot of handcrafting and playful experimentation throughout the process.
Yi Hsuan Lai, Gut Feeling, installation view, 2024. Courtesy of the artist.
AM: What is the significance of using found objects in your work?
YHL: Through staging, constructing into assemblages, and finally altering them through lens, the found objects and discarded materials transform into anthropomorphic, stand-in characters. I play with these objects in all their familiarity and strangeness to make uncanny scenarios. For me, those unwanted objects provide space for interpretation; they are ambiguous as material for sculpting for photographs; they are like body or spirit — I’ll see a roll of bubble wrap leaning up against a wall and I’m like, “That’s a person over there.”
The interview was edited and condensed for clarity.
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