Made Out of Cuts
Editorial, Design Research2024-2025
The lasting effects of authoritarianism on contemporary Taiwanese identity are explored through a psychoanalytic reading of Handing Over Horses, a folding screen painting by Lin Yu-shan. The painting’s material transformation mirrors Taiwan’s authoritarian history and the psychological ruptures it inflicted, while also gesturing toward the reimagining of Taiwanese identity beyond the national flags depicted on its surface. Looking through the cuts between the painted panels, the psychoanalytic narrative offers an alternate entry point into Taiwan’s unresolved authoritarian legacy.
Related workAfter Handing Over the Horses
1The book takes its form from the three vertical cuts of the folding-screen structure in Handing Over Horses, where design research finds their point of departure.
2Handing Over Horses by Lin Yu-shan (1943).