The flowering of nature-inspired art

By creating a message out of living orchids and ferns that are epiphytical by nature — i.e., plants that grow on the surface of other plants without harming the host — Zheng wanted to draw attention to the exploitative relationships that often exist between man and nature.

"When I started to work with plants, I realized the inequality between us and other forms of life," says Zheng. "Most humans try to push other forms of life into the margins. We help certain species propagate but ignore the majority of other species, and then, purposely or inadvertently, destroy their habitat and kill them. We have made other lives — in particular that of plants and animals — so much more difficult."

His aim is not only to acknowledge nature's contribution to his art, but also to help nature "realize its full potential, its energy and vitality."

In his installation titled You are the 0.01% — on show at Hong Kong's Oil Street Art Space in 2019, and since moved to Berlin — different varieties of grass were used to make the words stand out in a green patch. The message referred to humans accounting for only 0.01 percent of the Earth's biomass. The patch was left to grow organically after the exhibition, allowing weeds to mess with the artwork, as a reminder of nature's ability to disrupt human endeavor.