Hong Kong-based artist Zheng Bo (born 1974) meditates on our deep kinship with the natural world by incorporating live plants into his installations and performance pieces, which explore the aesthetics, erotics, politics and ecosensibilities of plant life.
It features six in-depth conversations: with Stephanie Rosenthal (Director of Gropius Bau; now Guggenheim Abu Dhabi) on wanwu; with Matthias Rillig (ecologist at Free University Berlin) on roots; with Phillip E. Bloom (Chinese art and garden historian at the Huntington) on pleasure; with Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens (ecosexual artists) on ecosex; with T. J. Demos (professor at UCSC) on flourishing; with Ye Ying (writer and journalist in Shanghai) on equality.
Zheng Bo's work is featured in the current exhibition at the Huntington: 奪天工 Growing and Knowing in the Gardens of China located in the Chinese Garden. It contains a video of a participatory exercise commissioned from the artist called "Fragrant Eight-Section Brocade" which is inspired by the traditional Chinese mind-body practice qigong 氣功.
