Trees: The Great Connectors
Trees: The Great Connectors
树：万物互联
"前人栽树后乘凉"
There is an old saying in China about trees: older people plant trees to provide shade for the young. This inter-generational way of thinking is an ecological way of viewing our world, to zoom in and out to see how everything is inter-connected. These two artists, one born and raised in Beijing and the other in Ireland, use unexpected creative processes to explore our relationship with the greater community of life and how we might turn towards regenerative ways of living with a common value, in homage to Mother Nature.
Niamh Cunningham Bio:
Cunningham recently returned from Chengdu A4 artist residency where she has been gathering short tree stories on video for her award-winning socio-ecological art practice the ‘Memory Palace of Tree Stories’. Exhibited in Europe, Asia, America, the Middle East and Australia, her TEDx talk (Rekindling our Bond with Nature) was also published last month and this November she begins an artist residency with the International School of Beijing weaving creative processes and eco-literacy with young learners. Her ‘Sucrose’ series uses crystalisation processes in mixed media to shift and alter natural landscapes. She has also worked with microbiologists on a pilot Microbe Art project with the Institute of Process Engineering, Beijing.
https://memorypalaceoftreestories.com/
Zhang Zhaohui Bio:
Zhang Zhaohui was born in Beijing in 1965, and currently lives in Beijing and New York. Zhang graduated from Nankai University in Tianjin in 1988, the China Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1992 (MA), and Bard College in New York in 1998 (MA). He was assistant curator at the National Museum of Art in China from 1988 to 1995. In 1996 he received a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council to study curatorial programs. As a curator turned artist, Zhang’s decade–long ink art exploration is informed by rich Chinese art traditions which inspired his transcultural experience and his innate love of nature. His works and projects have been focused on the relationship between art and nature. Over the last two decades his ink brush works have been included in over one hundred shows world-wide and some works have been collected by prestigious art institutions including the Chicago Art Institute, Denver Art Museum, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum and Inside Out Museum.
