People, Plants, Pleasure: A Conversation with Zheng Bo
Zheng Bo (they/them) is a contemporary artist based in Hong Kong who works with plants and will be featured in the upcoming exhibition "Growing and Knowing in the Gardens of China," which highlights how Chinese gardens have served as transformative spaces. Bo will join Phillip Bloom, June and Simon K.C. Li Curator of the Chinese Garden and Director of the Center for East Asian Garden Studies, for a conversation about the artist's wide-ranging practice. For the past decade, Zheng has created films, installations, drawings, and exercises that allow them to develop deeper, more meaningful, and more pleasurable relationships with plants. These practices ultimately question the ethics of human-centered modes of artmaking and being.
On the left, a video still from Ecosensibility Exercise: Fragrant Eight-Section Brocade, a commissioned work for "Growing and Knowing in the Gardens of China" by contemporary artist Zheng Bo, pictured on the right.
Sept. 14, 2024–Jan. 6, 2025 | This exhibition displays 24 artworks and a performance piece highlighting how Chinese gardens have served as transformative spaces for growing and contemplating plants, encouraging visitors to view their gardens as sources of delight, nourishment, and inspiration.
The Huntington’s Center for East Asian Garden Studies promotes innovative scholarship on the traditions of garden-making in China, Japan, and Korea.
Southern California’s landmark arts event, PST ART, returns in September 2024 with more than 70 exhibitions from museums and other institutions across the region, all exploring the intersections of art and science, both past and present. PST ART is presented by Getty. For more information, visit PST ART: Art & Science Collide