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1981
Volume 7, Issue 2-3
  • ISSN: 2051-7041
  • E-ISSN: 2051-705X

Abstract

Big Tail Elephant Working Group (, hereafter BTE) is synonymous with the city of Guangzhou and the surrounding Pearl River Delta. Formed in 1991, the group is most closely associated with the artists Chen Shaoxiong (1962–2016), Liang Juhui (1959–2006), Lin Yilin (1964–) and Xu Tan (1957–). This article re-examines BTE artists’ practice from 1991 to 1994 and argues that the artist’s performing body provides the critical lens through which to understand BTE artists’ work during this time. Acknowledging that the experience of BTE’s work was primarily physical, embodied and performative allows for an important reconsideration of not only their works but also the predominant ways in which the global capitalist ‘turn’ in the 1990’s China has been discussed in art historical writing. This article argues that BTE artists were primarily interested in urban forms for what they signified about commercialization as a form of a new political rationality after 1989 and suggests that BTE artists were ultimately concerned with commodification’s transformation of society and of ideas of cultural value.

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2020-12-01
2026-04-22

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/content/journals/10.1386/jcca_00026_1
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Labouring bodies: Big Tail Elephants in 1990s Guangzhou
Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art 7, 201 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1386/jcca_00026_1
/content/journals/10.1386/jcca_00026_1
/content/journals/10.1386/jcca_00026_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): Big Tail Elephant; Chinese art; contemporary art; installation art; Pearl River Delta; performance art; urbanization; ‘94 Guangdong Phenomenon

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