Artist and works

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 Juliane Noth & Wolfger Pöhlmann

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Lin Yiiin is regarded as one of the spokesmen for the "Big-Tail-Elephant" group, initiating an independent Chinese trend in art. During the October 1992 preparatory meeting for this group's exhibition he formulated the claim with a particularly aggressive nationalist emphasis: "Regarding the arts, I am of the opinion that we should attack contemporary Western art, but to do so we need a transition period during which we should accept Western art... I feel that an attack entirely based on Chinese elements of art is not enough". 

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During 1985/86, the "Big-Tail-Elephant" group, to which besides Lin Yilin, Liang Juhui and Chen Shaoxiong also belong, organized the legendary Guangzhou happening called "Salon" , which attempted to combine different forms of art such as fine arts, music, theatre, literature and philosophy into a unitary form. Even the public was involved as they are in Western "happenings".

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The group currently mainly produces installations. Lin Yilin himself concentrates on research into the interdependence of architecture and sculpture.

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In 1991, within the framework of a Canton group exhibition he constructed enormous sculptures, symbols of walls, from bricks and angle-irons, collected or bought at a demolition site. He called this piece "Standard Series of Ideal Residence Buildings"  :  "In this series of works I used architectural  techniques to