If it is true that every present creates its proper past, then a particular past can only be understood in relation to a specific present. The actual evidences of the past are impregnated by the present ?through what is kept apparent and through what is forgotten or erased. The structural concept of the past is constructed from the perspective of the present: it is the structure of the present that defines that of the past.?
Tonio Hscher, radition und Geschichte. Zwei Typen der Vergangenheit am Beispiel der griechischen Kunst? in: Assmann/Hscher (eds.), Kultur und Gedhtnis, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt, 1988: p.115.
Standards defining our lives, images and symbols conditioning our personality, and narratives building history and identity are central subjects in Lin Yilin oeuvre. Standard Series of Ideal Residence?(1991), one of his first major works, and household Goods?(1992) already question the structures that condition our environment and habits. Brick-walls delineating or objects animating space are inserted in metal structures ?eloquent metaphors of Lin distrust in given configurations and set outlines. Later sculptures and installations, for example, issing Dolly?(2005), am from Wall Street?(2006) and an Mao?(2008) rather focus on the significance of cultural myths.
Target is the title of Lin Yilin's first solo show at Tang Contemporary and in Beijing. Here he brings together four works in different media ?two videos, one large sculpture and one oil painting, representing historical figures and events, as well as the gigantic figure of a model hero ?the artist himself ?to reflect on those images and myths haunting and conditioning collective consciousness and memory. Lin questions the historical a priori suggested in established narratives and proposes another perception of history and reality. He therefore not only combines different media, but also heroes and myths from different cultures and periods: from Maoist China and from the US of the Bush era. Lin asks, what narrative does this kind of historical and cultural medley create and can such mixture provoke deeper insights and more substantial knowledge of social and political realities, of human nature? His choice of images creates an irritating tension: the figures and images chosen from the Maoist period have a very human and individual stance, while those selected from the American picture pool express an extremely ideology indoctrinated attitude.
ARTIST PROFILE
Lin Yilin who was trained as a sculptor at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in the early 1980s is known for his works combining sculpture, performance and video, for example safely Manoeuvring Across Linhe Road?(1995) for which he moved a wall across a busy road in Guangzhou by building and dismantling it brick by brick. The performance video, shown at documenta XII in Kassel in 2007, is part of a body of performances directly intervening in the public sphere in Guangzhou, realized in the1990s with the Big Tail Elephant Working Group.
Lin founded the group, embodiment of contemporary art from Guangdong Province and known for a critical artistic practice and autonomous positions, in 1990 together with Liang Juhui, Xu Tan and Chen Shaoxiong. Similar to Lin Yilin's later works, in which the sculptural and installation part is more significant, his early performances, like safely Manoeuvring?not only tend to disturb the perception of daily life and environment but also propose a different and critical version of reality, defining the narratives constructing consciousness and perception as a mere and endlessly amendable draft.
Lin Yilin currently lives and works in Guangzhou and New York.
