Artist and works
Juliane Noth & Wolfger Pöhlmann
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".
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".
The group currently mainly produces installations. Lin Yilin himself concentrates on research into the interdependence of architecture and sculpture.
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
