Pteridophilia I
- Artist: Zheng Bo
- Date: 2016
- Medium: Video, colour and sound (mono)
- Dimensions: duration: 17min
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is “Pteridophilia I” by Zheng Bo. The piece runs for 17 minutes and is a single‑channel video in colour with mono sound. It opens on a wide, dawn‑lit shot of a lush forest on the edge of Taipei, Taiwan. In the frame a group of naked queer men turn to the trees. They touch and caress the ferns with reverence, then slowly begin to kiss, lick, and rub the plant bodies. The men speak no words; their bodies and the forest’s subtle sounds of birds and insects carry the narrative.
Zheng explains that ferns are “queer plants” – they reproduce from spores, forming gametophytes that can be male, female or intersex. He uses the film to argue that sexuality is far more complex than just sperm and egg. By pairing local queer men with Taiwan’s dense fern population, the work critiques how both human and plant life are often marginalized. It pushes us to see “hypernormality” as only a tiny part of life, urging a broader view of intimacy that includes nature itself.
See it in person
Pteridophilia I is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
