We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Yi-Hsuan (Ant) Ma. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Yi-Hsuan (Ant) below.

Yi-Hsuan (Ant), thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

As a visual artist, also a photographer, I’m so curious about how to transform 3- dimensional space into 2-dimensional composition. (This is a big ask that existed in the film and theater world.) I create a photography series called “stage2”.

In this series, I built a scale dollhouse model and create cutout figures in different scenarios like I always do for set design. However, in the photography, I framed other objects in a real scale next to the models. (When I shot the figure with scale chairs, I also show a chair in the real size.)
The set model is a small stage of traditional Taiwanese opera. I think the idea that a stage inside another stage proscenium is an interesting juxtaposition and correspondence to each other. The reason to set in Taiwanese opera, is not only because it’s my past design for opera called Pagliacci, but also because this performance is rooted in Taiwanese traditional culture, also showing the contrast between the younger generation and nostalgia memories. Then we can discuss further: does there another reality exist in the model world? Do they represent/recreate what has really happened in someone’s experiences/memories, even if not existing here right now at this moment?

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m Yi-Hsuan, also go by Ant (small insect as my nickname). I’m originally from Taiwan, a multidisciplinary and international artist. Coming from a different culture and background of literature training, my approach to art is interdisciplinary and inclusive. I live in New York now, and I’m interested in different forms of storytelling, especially exploring the relationship between humans, objects and the environment. Most of the time I do scenic/production design for film and live performances. To
construct spaces that reinterpret the story/content in such a way as to simultaneously engage every element and make connections between the fictional illusion and reality.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Another photography project is a series I shot from April to June 2020, right after the pandemic strikes and explodes in New York City. I’m horned that this series was contributed to Rockwell Architecture, and is displayed at the Hotel Civilian gallery, newly opened in 2022. I’m always a fan of black and white film photography, also developing those films in my tiny bathroom with pungent chemistry with a timer. Those photos are the records of how the city becomes panicked, responds, and eventually survives. The shadow and light are gradually fighting themselves, and humans are finding their positions.

We reflect on all the tiny fractions and embrace the shining. I would really love to tell a story through my camera window/eyes. I would like to share as much as I can, and achieve justice in their own ways. Art is ephemeral but never disappears.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Considering storytelling and the relationship between characters and surroundings such as color, architectural layout, and scale makes theater the most amazing form of art and unreplaceable. If society could slow down and really listen to everyone’s needs, well social safety net, health insurance and housing justice.

How to be human beings? Why art is important?

This is the question I ask myself all the time, by observing the surroundings of theater and being involved in many different types of productions, I learned so much from my works.

Here I quote one of the paragraphs from dots’ interview.
https://brooklynrail.org/2023/06/theater/dots-is-Everywhere-Meet-the-Design-Triumvirate-Devising-a-New-Model?fbclid=IwAR1Ok5G7jGcArwex79IG8gEjGfBfkH3OMzrJbTioSUzfDFKyp_1KSf2hSEE

“There needs to be a redistribution of money from things to people,” said Nishikawa. “That’s unfortunately not happening off-Broadway.”
“So they rely on the labor to subsidize the production, to an extent,” added Moerdyk. “While paying the minimum rates.”     

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ant-setdesign.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ant_horsema/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ant.ma.73

Image Credits
Film photography by Ant Ma / ‘SHAKUNTALA: a remix’ photo by J. Alexander Baker & Keith Foreman