Tan Lijie and Ma Haijiao in Conversation with Paul Gladston and Lin Zi

This video presents the Chinese artists Tan Lijie and Ma Haijiao in conversation with Paul Gladston, UNSW Judith Neilson Professor of Contemporary Art and Lin Zi, Beijing-based curator and art critic. The conversation was recorded on 21 November 2025 at 'In-/Visible Spectrums: A Screening of Six Contemporary Video Artworks by Artists from Mainland China' which was curated by Gladston and the Chinese artist Yique and staged as part of a larger art and design expo at the Sea World Culture and Arts Centre in Shenzhen. The recorded conversation explores the transcultural construction of Tan's video Rain on the Platform (2022) and Ma's Light from the Sun (2023-2024). While both videos make lyrical allusions to poetry and films by others they also address the spectral complexity of the everyday in contemporary China: in Tan's case urban life in Shenzhen; and in Ma's post-/industrial rurality. The conversation is in English and Chinese with some translations by Lin Zi but without subtitles. If needed, viewers are advised to turn on the "cc" button to enable auto subtitles. Public screenings and conversations of this sort are difficult to stage in mainland China because of an ingrained cultural conservatism alongside state controls on the displaying of video art. For more details, visit https://www.unsw.edu.au/arts-design-architecture/jncca/news-and-events/events/screening-in-visible-spectrums