An evening of readings and a short-form writing workshop led by artist and poet Ahren Warner and curator Yu’an Huang
KUA 02 Displacement photo by An Ting Teng
| Date: | Tuesday, 15 April 2025 |
| Time: | 18:30–20:00, refreshments and arrival from 18:15 |
| Location: | Delfina Foundation |
| Tickets: | Free. Booking essential. |
| Access information: | Please refer to this page |
Join us for an evening of readings and a short-form writing workshop led by artist and poet Ahren Warner and curator Yu’an Huang.
Two worlds intersect in the first novella by artist and poet Ahren Warner, I Will Pay To Make It Bigger, (2024, prototype publishing), featuring a commissioned short story by former Delfina curator-in-residence Yu’an Huang. Huang’s serial publication project KUA (2022- ) threads thematic transnational artistic research with fiction writing, inviting readers to resonate from the other side of the world.
Set in party hostels across Southeast Asia, Warner’s novella explores what it means to consume enjoyment in the velocity of a post-globalized world and the fragile construction of self as a cultural product. His hypnotic second-person narrative and imagery lead readers through a layered blend of autofiction, docufiction, and pure fiction.
Huang’s contribution, an extended chapter from her KUA stories, intervenes in the universal “you” of Warner’s narrative, seeking to draw parallels between seemingly opposing localities and identities. In this event, Warner and Huang will discuss how they use fiction writing as a method to confront and exchange perspectives on escapist economies, transnational leisure and guilt, to wistful intimacy woven from the colonial fabric.
Following the reading and conversation, attendees will participate in a short-form writing exercise with prompts. Please bring a notebook, though a phone will suffice.
Biographies
Yu’an Huang curates, writes, and complicates transnational experiences. Based in London, Berlin, and Taipei, she initiated the serial publication project KUA, during the Asymmetry Curatorial Writing Fellowship at Chisenhale Gallery. The project has released the issues Re-Integration and Displacement to date, with Intimacy forthcoming.
Huang is also a member of the Asian Feminist Studio for Art and Research (AFSAR). Their video commissions have been showcased at Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong (2023), the Asia Art Biennial, Taichung (2024–25), and Kunsthalle Bangkok (2025).
Ahren Warner is a British poet and artist with a PhD in Literature and Philosophy. He is a Senior Lecturer at Loughborough University. Warner’s transition into filmmaking and photography grew from his work as a poet, with his visual practice featured in New Contemporaries (2020) and a solo exhibition at TJ Boulting, London (2022).
His writing work has been featured in the MIT Press/Whitechapel Gallery Documents of Contemporary Art series and co-edited The Contemporary Poetry Archive.
This event is supported by the National Culture and Arts Foundation, Taiwan.