Back to Home

My works are mainly dealing with multi-identity, using the way of performance to respond to the society I am with.

This series of photographies, the title is "Back to Home"

The initial conceptualization of this project stems from my wondering about my families’ transformation from the past to the present. As I found from my deceased grandpa’s drawers several old pictures from the 1950s to 2010s, I had an unfamiliar and awkward feeling towards the persons—the members of my family on the pictures—who, however, were mostly different from my memory and understanding. As an androgynous person, I decided to use myself as a medium to perform each member in the images, and I arranged grandfather as the main character of this project. Meanwhile, with my biological female identity, I get involved in male’s authority by wearing costumes. To re-experience and re-present the situation of the figures in the photos, I wear the same clothes left from my family members and revisit the same place where they were photographed. It’s not only an activity to re-experience my family’s past, but also an exploration of an archetype of the Asian family. Representing the old pictures is just like a case study of cultural studies in the historical courses. The figures in the photos, male or female, are performed by me. Though biologically female, I can perform well the gestures of the figures, beyond the dichotomy of gender and beyond the gap of time. The androgyny identity tends to erase the pale of gender on the one hand and challenges the rigid rubric of gender that defines and confines the individual’s behavior on the other.

© Yi Hsuan  Lai - Back to Home - Grandfather
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Back to Home - Grandfather

© Yi Hsuan  Lai - Back to Home - Cheng Ching Lake, Taiwan
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Back to Home - Cheng Ching Lake, Taiwan

© Yi Hsuan  Lai - Back to Home - Anping, Taiwan
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Back to Home - Anping, Taiwan

© Yi Hsuan  Lai - Back to Home - Changhua, Taiwan
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Back to Home - Changhua, Taiwan

© Yi Hsuan  Lai - Back to Home - Taichung, Taiwan
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Back to Home - Taichung, Taiwan

© Yi Hsuan  Lai - Back to Home - family album, Taiwan
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Back to Home - family album, Taiwan

© Yi Hsuan  Lai - Back to Home - Father
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Back to Home - Father

© Yi Hsuan  Lai - Back to Home - Changhua, Taiwan
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Back to Home - Changhua, Taiwan

© Yi Hsuan  Lai - Back to Home 09 - Family
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Back to Home 09 - Family

© Yi Hsuan  Lai - Back to Home 10 - Family
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Back to Home 10 - Family

© Yi Hsuan  Lai - Back to Home 11 - Taichung
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Back to Home 11 - Taichung

© Yi Hsuan  Lai - Back to Home 12 - Taichung
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Back to Home 12 - Taichung

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