Zheng Bo
Pteridophilia, 2016 - ongoing
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Connecting queer plants and queer people, Pteridophilia explores the eco-queer potential.
1 Six young men walk into a forest in Taiwan, making close contact with ferns. They establish emotional and physical relationships with the plants, relying on their bodies rather than words. Ferns are very common in Taiwan. They are valued by indigenous people but not by Japanese colonists or the Nationalists.
2 A man makes love to a bird's nest fern (Asplenium nidus) and then starts eating it. Zheng reflects on our current moral outlook that it is “natural” to eat plants but “unnatural” to make love to them. Bird's nest fern is a popular delicacy in Taiwan.
3 Zheng collaborates with three local BDSM practitioners who in turn collaborate with three fern species - green penny fern (Lemmaphyllum microphyllum), flying spider-monkey tree fern (Cyathea spinulosa), and elephant fern (Angiopteris palmiformis) - to expand BDSM practice.
4 For centuries humans have been in love with furled fronds of young ferns. Inspired by Yaoi anime, this chapter follows a young couple in their acts of love with fiddleheads.
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http://zhengbo.org/
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More images in https://post-wild.tumblr.com/
. POST-WILD is a collection of documents that trace the direction towards alternative forms of relationship between HUMAN and NON-HUMAN, between domesticated and wild. POST-WILD is an exploration into the imaginary of the human history as portrayed in art, media and social studies. . Research curated by Aitor Frias, architect and co-founder of AFAB
