Big Tail Elephant Group 大尾象工作组
From ArtSpeak China (ASC) Wiki
The Big Tail Elephant Group (also known as the Long Tail Elephant Group) emerged in Guangzhou, China, in response to the city’s rapid urbanization in the early 1990s. Founding artists Lin Yilin, Chen Shaoxiong, and Liang Juhui came together with a common interest in the transformation and inevitable corruption of modern cities. Through performances, installations and exhibitions of a wide spectrum of works, the Big Tail Elephant Group provided an open space for artists to explore issues associated with urban development.
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[edit] Who
Lin Yilin (co-founder), Chen Shaoxiong (co-founder), Liang Juhui (co-founder), Xu Tan, Zheng Guogu, Zhang Haier, Hou Hanru
[edit] When
1990s – 2000s
[edit] Where
Guangzhou, China.
[edit] What
The Big Tail Elephant Group (meaning an elephant with a lot of expenses)[1] was started by Lin, Chen, and Liang out of a common interest in the rapid urbanization of Guangzhou in the early 1990s. Later joined by Xu Tan, the group addressed the problems caused by the transition from a traditional, hard-working urban area into a modern city overwrought with corruption and profit-driven business. Guangzhou was among the earliest cities in China to undergo this change, resulting in some measure of perceived chaos and disorder.
[edit] Art
Each artist involved in the Big Tail Elephant Group focuses on different issues and employs a different approach, while drawing common inspiration from Guangzhou. According to founding member Lin Yilin, the Group is more like an open forum than a distinct movement:
“Inspired by a greater ambition, we aspire to break through the boundaries in artistic languages between Eastern and Western art. At its inception, the Big Tail Elephant Group did not make any position or guideline statements. It is rather an open space, where artists have opportunities to make their own statements as independent individuals. It is also a self-reliant space. Each artist had found his own way of expression over ten years of pursuit.” - Lin Yilin[2]
With this open-space mentality, the Big Tail Elephant Group worked with any space available to them in Guangzhou, experimenting with different media that best interacted with each site. Driven by the irrational consumerism and hedonism which permeated Chinese--and global--culture in the 1990s, the Group explored urban issues like development, consumerism, traffic, population and sex through their varied media.
[edit] Exhibition & Reception
The Big Tail Elephant Group have organized almost annual exhibitions in the form of performances, installations and exhibitions since their first exhibition in 1991–2003. They’ve been included in national biennials, including the Venice Biennial in 2002.
[edit] References
Lin Yilin, “The Big Tail Elephants in the 1990s”, Yishu, Joural of Contemporary Chinese Art, V. 2, No. 2, Summer 2003, PP. 22-23.
http://wason.library.cornell.edu/Wen/lin_yilin.php
- ↑ http://wason.library.cornell.edu/Wen/lin_yilin.php
- ↑ Lin Yilin, “The Big Tail Elephants in the 1990s”, Yishu, Joural of Contemporary Chinese Art, V. 2, No. 2, Summer 2003, PP. 22-23.
