Pteridophilia (series: 1–5)

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.