Lai Yen Hsun Solo Exhibiton
2026.03.06 - 2026.03.31

MAISON ACME
No. 181-1, Sec. 3, Zhongshan N. Rd., Zhongshan Dist.,Taipei City 104, Taiwan

Tue. - Sun. 11:00 - 17:00 Monday Off

Free Entry

Exhibition Concept:
“Why burn the boats?

Who burned them?

Whose boats were burned?

When did the fire start?

Where were the boats burned?

How was the fire set?

What happens after the boats are burned?

Will there be boats again?

Will we still be able to cross the river?

Can I go back?

Can I leave this place? …”

The title of the exhibition is derived from the Chinese translation of Burning Your Boats, a short story collection by the British writer Angela Carter, translated into Chinese as burning your boats (translator: Yan Yun).

“Burning the boats,” as an example of an event structure, has the capacity to evoke hysterical emotions among participants within that structure through the dynamic implication of “self-destruction.” Here, hysteria is proposed as a hypothetical method for the production of poeticity. If we are able to perceive “poeticity” within hysterical phenomena, could it therefore function as an intentional method for producing poetic effects?

So, what exactly do we mean when we speak of poeticity?

This exhibition presents a recent series of works by Lai Yen Hsun concerning the production of poeticity. Through the practical exploration of several hypothetical propositions for generating poeticity—such as “attachment,” “gazing,” “surveillance,” “constraint,” and “self-destruction”—the exhibition attempts to examine the relationship between “poeticity” and the “presence of the object” within the experience of viewing art.

Lai Yen Hsun, born in 1991, primarily works with three-dimensional visual art. He is particularly skilled at integrating craft-based material techniques with contemporary thought. Through intensive labor and accumulation, he transforms complex processes of thinking into a personal formal aesthetic. His practice centers on the dismantling of “event structures,” which are then displaced and rearranged into visual outcomes. Recently, his research has focused on the “methodology of producing poeticity.”