They or Ta Men

Ta Men (他们): Lai Shengyu (Born in 1978 in Hunan province) and Yang Xiaogang (Born in 1979 in Hunan province). Since 2005 the artist duo Ta Men have been staging hysterically exaggerated big-city scenes in a strangely furnished room featuring a huge window front. Whether set in Beijing, Shanghai, or Hong Kong whether executed as works in oil on canvas or through the means of digital photography – Ta Men’s analysis of the state of China’s new affluence does not evoke confidence. The topics of their works reach from the lonely city dweller’s melancholy, shopping mania, prostitution, and torture, to the desire for a harmonious cooperation between humanity and nature.

Originally Lai Shengyu and Yang Xiaogang had joined with Chen Li to form Ta Men, but since 2006 they have been working as a duo. “We are called ‘they’ in the sense of ‘the others,’ because it is not our own personal stories which stand at the center of our work. Our pictures hold up a mirror to contemporary China. This mirror should not just show the outer layer of reality. We are much more concerned with the psychological effects of China’s rapid modernization on the people who live here.”

“In our work, we want to discuss social problems. As we understand it, art must stay a step ahead of real life. To make the consequences of today’s way of life visible we often reach for very drastic means of expression.”

C.V.

Other and former works: