In-/Visible Spectrums
不-/可见的光谱
Contemporary Video Art from the Sinosphere
华语文化圈当代影像艺术
SOAS Gallery, University of London
Date
16 April - 20 June 2026
Tues to Sat 10.30 - 17.00, Thurs until 20.00
Ticket
Free admission
‘In-/Visible Spectrums: Contemporary Video Art from the Sinosphere’ is a landmark survey exhibition showcasing contemporary video artworks by eleven artists: Huang Yuhui 黄宇辉, Li Nu 李怒, Liang Yue 梁玥, Liu Guoqiang 刘国强, Ma Haijiao 马海蛟, Ma Qiusha 马秋莎, Siu Wai Hang 蕭偉恒, Tong Wenmin 童文敏, Xin Yunpeng 辛云鹏, Yi Lian 易连, and Zheng Xinhao 郑新皓 produced between 2015 and 2025. The featured artworks are lyrical, poetic and conceptually abstract while also referring to everyday life and bodily experiences. All have transcultural relationships to defamiliarizing techniques associated with international post Duchampian contemporary art as well as the resonant indeterminacy and oblique criticality of classical Chinese aesthetics - the persistent traces of which remain a defining aspect of present-day Sinophone habituses.
The Sinosphere is a cultural-linguistic domain traversing the borders of mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and related diasporic communities. It encompasses a diverse range of distinct though interrelated identities that intersect with the 'realities’ of differing localised sociopolitical and economin conditions. The extent of the Sinosphere is geographically indeterminate and fluid. Its constituent identities are made ever more complex by the intensified global movement of Chinese speaking peoples as part of the unfolding of post-Cold War globalisation. Videos included in the exhibition wereproduced by artists living and working in mainland China and Hong Kong in addition to one from mainland China currently located in Canada and another from Hong Kong now in the UK.
‘In-/Visible Spectrums’ intervenes with institutionally dominant conceptions of Chinese contemporary art as a phenomenon related exclusively to mainland China as well as current tendencies within the contemporary international artworld towards explicit messaging and oppositional protest (rather than critical demonstrations of the deconstruction of meaning). The significances of the videos included in the exhibition are open – by in-/visible turns - to shifting spectral readings across uncertain cultural boundaries.
In-/Visible Spectrums will be accompanied by a series of screenings/panels exploring the making and significance of video artworks by Sinophone artists including several not included in the exhibition. There will also be a plenary roundtable on the critical interpretation of contemporary video art from the Sinosphere.
The exhibition’s curatorial team is led by the University of New South Wales Judith Neilson Chair of Contemporary Art (UNSW JNCCA) Professor Paul Gladston and the independent curator Dr. Lynne Howarth-Gladston. The exhibition’s co-curators are the artist and curator Yique, the art writer and curator Lin Zi - both based principally in mainland China - and Professor Frank Vigneron of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
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Artists and Featured Video Artworks
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1998 - Born in Changzhou, China.
2022 - MA Design, Goldsmiths, University of London.
2024 - MFA Fine Art, Glasgow School of Art.
Lives and works in Chengdu, China.Huang's inclined creative approach is a combination of visual and behavioural performances. He yearns to break time through creative practice. The break in time can lead to the madness of time, loosening the chain of language and allowing the reality that exists under the shadow of daily language to flow out of the break. Huang states, 'We are always unexpectedly unsetteled by real things, probably because when faced with familiar things, we prefer to "memorize" rather than "read". The joy brought by recitation is suspended, dry and devoid of moisture, to the extent that it can ascend to the eternal constellation above. And what I want to convey is the internal deviation of the stars, squeezing some water into happiness.'
Artwork
Hundreds of Throws (2023), single-channel video, 05’20’’
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1979 - Born in Sichuan province, China.
2015 - MA in Sculpture, Royal College of Art, London, UK.
Lives and works in Beijing, China.
Li Nu’s work is rooted in everyday life. He subverts the perceived boundaries between documentary and fiction, representation and abstraction to explore and achieve a poetic language in art. By capturing the details of everyday life, he aims to reflect individuals’ mood swings and the mundane state of the population within the evolution of macro-society. The apparently unpromising materials of everyday life are transformed into something metaphorical, poignant, humorous, poetic and dramatic, challenging us to question our received experiences about life and see the world afresh. The concept he aims to express is never what you have seen; it is always wandering between void and solid.
Artwork
Endless Whip (2019), single-channel video, colour, sound, 08′17″
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1979 - Born in Shanghai.
2001 - Graduated from Shanghai Art Academy.Lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
In Liang Yue's work – whether in the form of photos or videos - the ‘daily’ is always taken as a focus. She uses readily available materials to seek, explore and capture daily routines and to gaze at the eternal scenery in nature by extending the forms of urban life. A clear indicator of her art practice can be witnessed in works during the past fifteen years that explore the beauty of insignificance; especially her videos, in which she continues to simplify and abandon the conventional techniques of shooting and editing as a way of challenging the art appreciation which the audience has been used to as well as viewers' patience and rationality. The so-called significance and value of art is brought into question by treating the meaningless as the ultimate sign of creation.
Artwork
Mind Rehearsal (2018), single-channel video, colour, sound, HD, 26’ 37”
Aurora in the Bedroom (2020), single-channel video, colour, no sound, 4K, 13’00”
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1988 - Born in Shandong Province, China.
2011 - Graduated from the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China.His works encompass video, installation, and painting.
Artwork
Doors Opening (2015), two-channel video, 0’45’’
Length (2015), two-channel video, 0’25”
Size (2019), single-channel video, 4’11”
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1990 - Born in Hebei province, China.
2009 - 2016 - BA and MA, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China.Lives and works in Beijing.
Ma Haijiao’s artistic media include documentary video, photography, video installations, text, and paintings. His works explore personal thoughts and sensitivities about immediate environments as well as broader societal and historical contexts. Works are created from personal experience and close observation of everyday life, which are used to develop a visual language that blends the appearance of reality with poetic elements.
Artwork
Light from the Sun (2023-2024), single channel video, colour, sound, 10’ 35”
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1982 - Born in Beijing, China.
2005 - BA, Digital Media Studio, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China.
2008 - MFA Electronic Integrated Art, Alfred University, New York, US.Lives and works in Beijing, China.
Ma Qiusha employs multiple media including photography, video, installation and drawing to explore experiences of life under sociocultural transformations. Often using intimate visual languages, her work addresses the themes of individuals and the collective as well as private spaces and public spheres. Drawing on an anthropological perspective, her research on individuals, families and intergenerational relationships raises questions of appearance and disappearance, and of the truth or mistruth of history.
Artwork
Mars (2016), single channel video, 3'53''
Thirty Years (2025), 30-channel video installation, colour, sound, multiple durations up to 1’00”
Pantheon (2024-2025), multi-screen video, colour, sound, 0’40”
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1986 - Born in Hong Kong, China.
2013 - Master of Fine Arts, Department of Fine Arts,The Chinese University of Hong Kong.Lives and works in the UK.
Siu Wai Hang’s work uses different methods and principles to express solicitude for society and contemplation on the medium of photography. History is the thread through which a worldview of being a Hong Konger is uncovered. Subject matter couples with the nature and strength of photography highlighting encounters between traditional photography and contemporary digital work.
Artwork
Cage Bridges (2021), video sculpture, 42’00”
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1989 - Born in Chongqing, China.
2012 - Graduated from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing, China.Lives and works in Chongqing, China.
Tong Wenmin's work often focuses on the intersection between individual perception and the external environment, stimulating visual poetry and inspiring action through behaviours that at first seem counter-intuitive. Her work hints at the allegorical character of the body and action within a semantically rich context.
Artwork
Crawl (2018-2019), three-channel video, colour, sound, 22'48", 19'55", 25'02"
Wave (2019), single-channel video, colour, no sound, 19'46"
Plantain Forest (2019), single-channel video, colour, sound, 6'43"
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1982 - Born in Beijing, China.
2007 - BFA Sculpture Department at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing.
2016 - Master of Art degree.Lives and works in Beijing, China.
Xin Yunpeng’s work primarily takes the form of installations, video pieces, and site-specific projects. His art raises questions about the social realities around us, marked by a sharp sensitivity and political metaphor. He integrates his ideas—sometimes forcefully, sometimes subtly—into practices that regard the present as living history. Whether through manipulating the physical dimensions of space, exploring time and irony in moving images, or appropriating found objects, Xin Yunpeng’s artistic practice provokes a psychological “counteraction” in viewers that emerges from specific contexts.
Artwork
Towards the World (2022), ten-screen video installation, LED screen, media player board, variable dimensions, 3’00” (loop)
Left and Right, Hesitation (2017), two-channel video, 1920*1080 25p, 16:9, colour, sound, variable dimensions,10’43” (loop)
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1987 - Born in Jiangxi, China.
2009 - BA, New Media Art Department, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou.
2012 - MA, School of Intermedia Art, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou.Lives and works in Hangzhou, China.
Yi Lian's creative forms include video, installation, photography, painting, and ceramics. His works are primarily based on contemporary Chinese reality and focus on the concrete and authentic personal spiritual state.
Artwork
Up and Down (2022), single-channel video, colour, sound, 4K, 9’00”
Superfluous Light (2020), single-channel video, colour, sound, 4K, 4'19"
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1996 - Born in Lanzhou, Gansu, China.
2016 - 2020 - BA in Public Art, Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts, Public Art Department, Xi'an, China.
2021 - 2024 - MFA, Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Transmedia Art, Xi'an, China.
2024 - present - PhD, Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Transmedia Art, Xi'an, China.Lives and works in Xi’an, Shaanxi, China.
Zheng Xinhao's practice spans moving image and installation, employing interdisciplinary approaches to engage with themes of history, ecology, and subjectivity. His works navigate the tensions between existential anxiety, death awareness, and identity formation, tracing the continual transformation of “the meaning of meaning” as a core narrative thread. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Public Art within the Department of Cross-Media Art at the Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts, and founded the COMMON art collective in 2021.
Artwork
Not Here, Not There (2020), single-channel video, 6’14”
Dasein (2021), two-channel video, colour, sound, 4’25”
Angst (2021) multi-screen video, 3'16”
Curators' Biographies
Lead Curators
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Paul Gladston is the inaugural Judith Neilson Chair Professor of Contemporary Art, University of New South Wales, Sydney, a Distinguished Affiliate Fellow of the UK-China Humanities Alliance, Tsinghua University, Beijing and a member of the governing board of the journal Third Text. His book-length publications include Contemporary Chinese Art: A Critical History (Reaktion 2014), awarded ‘best publication’, Awards of Art China (2015), and Contemporary Chinese Art, Aesthetic Modernity and Zhang Peili: Towards a Critical Contemporaneity (Bloomsbury 2019). He is the founding editor of the Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art (Intellect) and the book series Contemporary East Asian Visual Cultures, Societies and Politics (Palgrave) as well as being the editor of numerous collected editions and special journal editions, including Rethinking Displays of Chinese Contemporary Art: Cultural Diversity and Tradition (Palgrave 2024) and Visual Culture Wars at the Borders of Contemporary China: Art, Design, Film, New Media and the Prospects of “Post-West" Contemporaneity (Palgrave 2021). He was the curatorial director of the exhibition ‘Yique’s Way – Mutuality in Extremes’ (Ugly Duck, London 2024), organizer of a scholarly roundtable accompanying the exhibition ‘Strange Wonders: Jizi and Pioneers of Contemporary Ink Art from China’, SOAS Gallery (2024) and an academic advisor to the internationally acclaimed exhibition ‘Art of Change: New Directions from China’ (Hayward Gallery-South Bank Centre, London 2012).
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Lynne Howarth-Gladston is an artist, curator, and researcher. She has exhibited her paintings internationally in China, the UK, and Australia, and was co-curator, with Paul Gladston, of numerous scholarly exhibitions, including ‘New China/New Art: Contemporary Video from Shanghai and Hangzhou,’ (Djanogly Art Gallery, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK 2015), ‘Dis-/Continuing Traditions: Contemporary Video Art from China’ (Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 2021) and ‘Rain on the Platform – Tan Lijie, Selected Works’ (National Chen Kung University Gallery, Taiwan 2024). Her Ph.D. thesis is the first to engage critically with the work of the nineteenth-century botanical painter, Marianne North. She is the author of the monograph Marianne North: A Victorian Painter for the 21st Century (Lund Humphries 2024) and was a contributor to the BBC4 documentary, Kew’s Forgotten Queen: The Life of Marianne North (2016).
Gladston and Howarth-Gladston were resident for five years in mainland China at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo China (2005-2010) and have written extensively about Chinese contemporary art with an attention to the concerns of critical theory.
Co-Curators
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Lin Zi is an independent critic, curator, and Co-founder of YounGo Cutlure and Art Agency. He is dedicated to fostering international art exchanges, improving the ecology of localized art scenes and integrating psychoanalytic discourse into curatorial and critical practices. In 2017, Lin earned a Master of Arts with honors degree in Art Criticism and Writing from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York, USA. He also holds dual bachelor’s degrees in history and psychology from Acadia University in Canada. Since 2017, he has curated over 80 exhibitions and art events globally. Between 2016 and 2020, Lin organized 15 exhibitions in New York including ‘When Black Swallows Red’ at La Mama Galleria, showcasing emerging New York-based artists (2019). More recently he curated ‘ArtParking’ in the Capital Free Trade Cultural Zone, the ‘Facade 798 Gallery Tour Exhibition’ in Beijing’s 798 Art District and the group exhibition ‘Those Men Came from the Moon’ in association with the ShanghArt Gallery, Shanghai’ (all 2024) in addition to the public art project ‘Artists Without Resumes’ at the Rice Mill Art District, Hangzhou (2025). He also organized and curated the public art festival ‘Rock-Paper-Scissors Art Carnival’ at DHGE and Art Flow Art District, Shanghai (2025). Lin’s practice as a curator and critic bridges interdisciplinary methodologies, global perspectives and experimental public engagement, redefining contemporary art’s role in cultural and social discourse.
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Yique is a graduate of the Royal College of Art, London and a Hangzhou-based artist and curator. He is known internationally for his art action East London Core Socialist Values (2023) which attracted conflicting high-profile commentary in the press, in situ and online when it was staged at London’s graffiti art quarter on London’s Brick Lane. Yique and Lin Zi recently co-curated a group exhibition in Hangzhou titled ‘No Resume.’ Yique and Lin have strong connections with emerging artists in mainland China specializing in video art. Yique has curated two events related to the SOAS exhibition ‘In/Visible Spectrums’: a three-day closed screening of videos and discussion panels ‘Absent Participation–Moving Images as Art’ at the Creativity and Innovation Center, Longgang District, Shenzhen City, and with Paul Gladston and Lin Zi a public screening of the work of four video artists from mainland China at the Sea World Culture and Arts Center (SWCAC), Shenzhen (both 2025).
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Frank Vigneron is Chair Professor, Department of Fine Arts, Chinese University of Hong Kong. He holds a Ph.D. in Chinese Art History from the Paris VII University, a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the Paris IV Sorbonne University and a Doctor of Fine Arts from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. His research focuses on the history of Chinese painting from the eighteenth century onwards and aspects of Chinese contemporary art seen in a global context. He is a member of the International Association of Art Critics Hong Kong and a Museum Expert Adviser for the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Hong Kong SAR. Professor Vigneron is also a practicing artist. He has held several solo exhibitions in Hong Kong and has taken part in local and international group exhibitions.
In-/Visible Spectrums: Documentary Trailer
This trailer introduces a longer film documenting a journey to four cities across mainland China in 2025 by Paul Gladston, the UNSW Judith Neilson Chair Professor of Contemporary Art which aimed to visit artists and review their video artworks as part of the research for the 2026 SOAS Gallery, University of London exhibition 'In-/Visible Spectrums: Contemporary Video Art from the Sinosphere.' The trailer and the longer documentary film show events during the journey to China and introduce key ideas presented by the SOAS exhibition. Paul Gladston was accompanied on his journey by co-curators of the exhibition Yique and Lin Zi.
Documentary Production Team
Directors: Yique, Wan Quan, Shao Hanbin
Production Supervisors: Paul Gladston, Wen Chen
Director of Photography: Zhang Rui
Camera Operators: Zhang Rui, Song Peng, Wang Shuanglu
Editors: Wan Quan, Han Jiaxin
Music: Shao Hanbin, Wan Quan
Composers: Shao Hanbin, Wan Quan
Copyright
© UNSW Judith Neilson Chair of Contemporary Art (JNCCA)
Acknowledgements
Exhibition and screenings produced and financially supported by the University of New South Wales Judith Neilson Chair of Contemporary Art (JNCCA).
In association with
Related Events
Upcoming Screening
In-/Visible Spectrums (London)
April-June, 2026
This series of screenings/panel discussions accompanying the SOAS Gallery exhibition ‘In/Visible Spectrums’ showcases contemporary video artworks by Sinophone artists. Find out more
Past Screening
In-/Visible Spectrums (Shenzhen)
Nov, 2025
The event grew out of an extended research journey across mainland China during June and July 2025. Read more
Past Forum
Absent Participation
August, 2025
Screenings of numerous contemporary experimental video artworks by mainland China based artists. Read more