People, Plants, Pleasure: A Conversation with Zheng Bo

Zheng Bo, a contemporary artist from Hong Kong, joins Huntington curator Phillip Bloom for a conversation about the artist’s wide-ranging practice and the ethics of human-centered modes of artmaking and being.
Lectures

Zheng Bo (they/them), a contemporary artist based in Hong Kong who works with plants, is featured in the 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.

A black-and-white image of a person near a cave with water and plants (left) and a color portrait of a person with short hair who is wearing a white shirt.

A video still (left) from Ecosensibility Exercise: Fragrant Eight-Section Brocade, a commissioned work for “Growing and Knowing in the Gardens of China” by contemporary artist Zheng Bo (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.

The exhibition has been made possible with support from Getty through its PST ART: Art & Science Collide initiative.

Red sun dial logo with text reading PST Art

Southern California’s landmark arts event, PST ART, returned 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