Tian Taiquan is a photographer from Chongqing - possibly even THE photographer, since Chongqing is mainly a painters’ city. Tian graduated from the Sichuan Institute of Fine Arts in 1988 and he is now Resident Artist at Tank Loft, Chongqing Contemporary Arts Centre.

Tian Taiquan is noteworthy for the way in which he depicts his tough subject matter with great poetry and thoughtful composition. In his photographs, which are often set in the only preserved Red Guards graveyard in China, Tian challenges the taboos of the Cultural Revolution, such as music, sexuality and leisure. The period of history that he portrays in his various series of photographs remains largely unacknowledged in the Chinese consciousness.  For example, “Fluttering” (below) represents the haunting of a period when music was strictly forbidden, whereas the “Totem Recollection” series above celebrates the triumphant emergence of sexuality from under the repression of Mao Zedong.

 

 

LiKailin is proud to have been the first gallery outside China to mount a solo exhibition for Tian Taiquan, in Birmingham in 2008.