On Water

The Daodejing, 5th Century BC
 

上善似水。水善利萬物而又爭居衆人之所惡，故幾於道矣。居善地，心善淵，予善 天，言善信，政善治，事善能，動善時。夫唯不爭，故無尤。
 

The highest efficacy is like water.
It is because water benefits everything (u-anwu)  

Yet vies to dwell in places loathed by the crowd  

That it comes nearest to proper way-making. 

In dwelling, the question is where is the right place.  

In thinking and feeling, it is how deeply.  

In giving, it is how much like nature’s bounty.  

In speaking, it is how credibly.  

In governing, it is how effectively.  

In serving, it is how capably.  

In acting, it is how timely.  

It is only because there is no contentiousness in proper way-making  

That it incurs no blame.

Pteridophilia 1, 2016  

digital video, colour, sound  

17:01 mins  

Courtesy the artist & Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong.  

Originally supported by TheCube Project Space, Villa Vassilieff and Pernod Ricard Fellowship

Pteridophilia 2,2018  

digital video, colour, sound  

20:36 mins  

Courtesy the artist & Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong 

Pteridophilia 3, 2018  

digital video, colour, sound  

15:39 mins  

Courtesy the artist & Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong. Originally commissioned by the 11th Taipei Biennial

Pteridophilia 4, 2019  

digital video, colour, sound  

16:35  

Courtesy the artist & Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong. Originally commissioned by Kyoto City University of Arts Art Gallery 

Pteridophilia 5, 2021  

digital video, colour, sound 9:52 mins  

Courtesy the artist & Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong. Originally commissioned by Liverpool Biennial

Pseudocopulation  

digital video, colour, sound  

5:17 mins  

Courtesy the artist & Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong. Films by Colin Bower and Matteo Peril.  

Zheng Bo’s installation combines scientific films of bees and wasps attempting to mate with tongue orchids in the work Pseudocopulation and the artist’s ongoing series Pteridophilia portraying intimate encounters between young men and ferns in a forest in Taiwan. ‘Connecting queer plants and queer people, Pteridophilia explores the eco-queer potential’ Zheng says. In one film we see a man make love to a bird’s nest fern​ (Asplenium nidus) and then eat it. In this scene, Zheng reflects ‘on our current moral outlook that it is “natural” to eat plants but “unnatural” to make love to them’. Noting that ‘Bird’s nest fern is a popular delicacy in Taiwan’.  

The installation at the Cutaway also includes a variety of living ferns and visitors are invited to spend time with them, lower their bodies to the plants level and draw them, if they like, using materials provided. Zheng has a daily practice of drawing plants, a meditative exercise that seeks to understand the plants perspective, and to empathise with their ways of being in the world, their time frames, movements, and behaviours.