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Ma Haijiao

MA HAIJIAO

If We Delete Green, If We Start Caring About Plants Tabula Rasa Gallery 26 January–9 March 2022 London
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Ma Haijiao’s works are often expressions based on his personal observation after a long-term attention to a certain topic. His recent works focus on impacts of urban development that can be felt in our living environment, from a more collective perspective such as city architecture, environmental issues to more personal angles such as family life, and individual living condition. His most well-known works include: Mr. Quan (Ongoing), a collection of films resulting from a continuous documentation of Mr. Quan who suffered from mental deficiency; and others such as Invisible Shores (2019), _Happy Valle_y (2018–2019), I Came of Age Without the Berlin Wall (2018), resulting from the artist’s research into the socio-cultural fabrics of Vladivostok, Hong Kong and Berlin during his residencies and travels.

For this exhibition, the artist turned his tentacles to the meaning of an colour. If We Delete Green, If We Start Caring About Plants takes ‘green’ and ‘plant’ as dual themes to unfold interweaving imaginations and narratives. The two channels of the video were respectively shot in a studio and a tropical jungle, presenting an intertextual relationship in terms of concept and presentation of ‘green’ and ‘plants’.

Green as a colour bears the least similarity to humans’ skin colours, making the green screen an ideal application in film production. Plants are born in nature independent of human. In this sense, green is also a signification of the colour of plants, further imbued with social significance. The artist deliberately blurs the boundaries between the ideas of ‘green’ and ‘plant’ in his thinking, exploring meanings of these paired concepts such as ‘artificial and natural’, ‘reality and camouflage’ and ‘signification and symbol’ in the video.

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About the Artist

Ma Haijiao (b.1990, Hebei, China) received his B.A. & M.F.A. at the China Academy of Art. He was a nominee for the JIMEI x ARLES Discovery Award in 2020. He won the prize of EACA (East Asian Contemporary Art, 2019), and was a finalist of the Huayu Youth Award in Art Sanya (2018) and the 10th Three Shadows Photography Award (2018). His artworks are in the collection of Smart Museum of Art (Chicago), Power Station of Art (Shanghai), and ZARYA Center for Contemporary Art (Vladivostok).

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Also Exhibiting at Tabula Rasa Gallery

All Exhibitions
Terrence Musekiwa
TERRENCE MUSEKIWA Dare Revavhumbamiri Tabula Rasa Gallery 2 June–18 July 2026 London
Cheng Xinhao
CHENG XINHAO And We Shall Go Through Their Hills Without Much Delay Tabula Rasa Gallery 9 May–20 June 2026 Beijing
About the Gallery
Tabula Rasa Gallery is is a leading young contemporary art gallery founded in Beijing’s 798 art district in 2015. It quickly distinguished itself for representing a group of young Chinese artists with diverse backgrounds. In April 2021, Tabula Rasa Gallery opened its second space in Hoxton, London, providing a wider platform for East and South-East Asian artists in Europe
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Address
Unit One
99 East Rd, Hoxton, N1 6AQ
London
United Kingdom
Opening Hours
Tuesday – Saturday
11am – 6pm
(1)
London Unit One, 99 East Rd, Hoxton, N1 6AQ
Tabula Rasa Gallery contemporary art gallery in London United Kingdom
Tabula Rasa Gallery
Unit One, 99 East Rd, Hoxton, N1 6AQ, London, United Kingdom
http://www.gallerytabularasa.co.uk

Opening hours
Tuesday – Saturday
11am – 6pm
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