Where Roots Take Hold 2026 (Artist Residency)
Where Roots Take Hold began with a search for Kuk Po villagers living in the United Kingdom. While researching the village from afar, I became drawn to a centuries-old banyan tree in Kuk Po, a Pak Gong tree long regarded as a representative of the God of Land. The search for villagers gradually evolved into a parallel search for banyan trees in diaspora, tracing their presence within botanical glasshouses across the UK.
Moving between Kuk Po and the Palm House at Kew Gardens, the project explores how both people and trees continue to carry memory, belief, and cultural identity across distance. Through photography, field research, archival material, and site-specific installation, the work reflects on migration, coexistence, and the ways in which nature continually exceeds the boundaries through which humans attempt to frame, preserve, and understand it.
Developed through an artist residency in Kuk Po, Hong Kong, the exhibition was installed within the ruins of Sung's Mansion, where a banyan tree has gradually reclaimed the architecture. Rather than resisting the site's changing ecology, the installation embraced weather, humidity, and the presence of other living beings, allowing the work itself to become part of the ongoing life of the place.
Centuries-old Pak Gong Tree (Chinese banyan) in Kuk Po and the banyan (Ficus benghalensis) in the Palm House at Kew Gardens. Both receive offerings from people.
Check out my video documentation of the residency and the village. 🌿