Xu Tan

SPRING

Keywords Laboratory: Social Botany, about “seeds, bloodline and anxiety about filial piety” and about “endurance and animalistic freedom”,
2012–2015

Xu Tan was born in Wuhan, Hubei Province in 1957. After receiving his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in oil painting from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 1983 and 1989 respectively, Xu joined the Guangzhou-based experimental art collective Big Tail Elephant in 1993, and participated in four Big Tail Elephant exhibitions (two as a member in 1994 and 1996). During his time with Big Tail Elephant, Xu produced numerous artworks that responded to the influx of modernization and consumerist ideologies and the changing everyday lives of Guangzhou people in relation to bodies and space. Throughout his 30 years of artistic practice, Xu’s artworks have moved from paintings to installations and to more conceptual and socially engaged art projects today. He has always explored the relationship between contemporary life and traditional culture, and how modern ideologies have been manifested and interpreted in the Chinese society from the 1990s to today. Xu currently lives and works in Guangzhou.