Zheng Bo

Zheng Bo, Pteridophilia (series: 1–5), 2016–2021. Installation view at FACT, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Rob Battersby

Zheng Bo, Pteridophilia (series: 1–5), 2016–2021. Installation view at FACT, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Rob Battersby

Zheng Bo, Pteridophilia (series: 1–5), 2016–2021. Installation view at FACT, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Rob Battersby

Zheng Bo, Pteridophilia 2 (film still), 2018

Zheng Bo, Pteridophilia 3 (film still), 2018

PreviousNext

Zheng Bo (b. 1974, Beijing, China) lives and works in Lantau Island, Hong Kong. Zheng is committed to multispecies vibrancy. He investigates the past and imagines the future from the perspectives of marginalised communities and marginalised plants. Zheng creates weedy gardens, living slogans and eco-queer films. He is learning to cultivate ecological wisdom beyond the Anthropo-extinction event. Zheng is also a lecturer who taught at China Academy of Art (2010 – 2013) and currently lectures at School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. Recent exhibitions and presentations include ICA Shanghai (2019); Kyoto City University of Arts Art Gallery (2019); Manifesta 12, Palermo (2018); and the 11th Taipei Biennial (2018).

Project Description

Zheng Bo presented a new commission, the fifth of his Pteridophilia series (2016-ongoing), alongside Pteridophilia 1 to 4 at FACT Liverpool. His ongoing film series connects queer plants and queer people, pushing the boundaries of sexuality and love to incorporate the natural world. Zheng Bo’s work is informed by queer ecology, which rejects nature being positioned as existing in binary states – for example, human or non-human, natural or unnatural. Interested in moving beyond human exceptionalism, Zheng Bo situates communities of people and plants as subjects in his films, depicting scenes of physical intimacy between them. Reflecting on the idea of the body as a fluid organism that is continuously shaped by and shaping its environment, Zheng Bo’s work destabilises identity and gender categories, further re-interpreting the relationship between ecology and human sexuality. The film series also raises questions about the complex relationship between terrain and nationality – and how the conquest of countries, land and nature have historically been heteronormative endeavours.

Supported by Edouard Malingue Gallery.

Our full exhibition programme is now closed, but visitors can still enjoy art in person at FACT and Bluecoat until August & September. Plan your visit here.