Zheng Bo: ‘Pteridophilia I’
Zheng Bo, Pteridophilia I, 2016. 4K video, stereo sound, colour, 17 min. All rights reserved by the artist
About the Work
Connecting queer plants and queer people, Pteridophilia I pushes the boundaries of sexuality and love to incorporate the natural world. Zheng Bo’s work is informed by queer ecology, a practice of stepping away and beyond binaries – for example, human or non-human, or natural and unnatural. Instead, they situate both communities of people and plants as subjects in their films, depicting scenes of physical intimacy, while destabilizing gender categories. The film raises questions about the human conquest of land, often historically undertaken from the position of white, male, heteronormative power.
About the Artist
Zheng Bo (b.1974; based in Lantau Island, Hong Kong) is an ecoqueer artist of ethnic Bai heritage. Through drawing, dance and film, they cultivate kinship with plants: ferns in Taiwan, moss in Scandinavia, beech trees in Germany and umbrella thorn acacia in the Arabian Desert. For them, art does not arise from human creativity, but more-than-human intimacy. Recent projects include solo exhibitions at Gropius Bau and Göteborgs Konsthall, public commissions at Somerset House and Jameel Arts Centre, and participation in the 59th Venice Biennale. Their works are in the collections of Tate Modern, Power Station of Art, and Hammer Museum, among others.
About EMAP x FRIEZE FILM SEOUL
For the third year in a row, Frieze Film returns to Frieze Seoul 2024. This year’s programme is presented in partnership with Ewha Media Art Presentation (EMAP) and on view from 2 – 6 September at Ewha Womans University and online at frieze.com.
Curated by Joowon Park and Valentine Umansky, this year’s programme is titled ‘All that Weaves the Universe: Of Quantum Entanglements’. It brings together time-based media works of 37 international artists, unfolding across eight chapters.
