These paintings by Vivien Zhang reference Sterculia lanceolata (假蘋婆), a plant native to Southern China. Zhang’s experience of this plant is from a distance through digital images originally sent by her mother from Hong Kong during the Coronavirus lockdown.

The plant’s name in Chinese translates to ‘fake-Sterculia monosperma’ – implying that the plant is an inauthentic version of a sibling species (Sterculia monosperma, 蘋婆). Many species of plants have been named this way in the Chinese language due to their visual properties, such as Primula malacoides (報春花) and Primula matthioli (假報春).

Zhang is particularly interested in the ideas of authenticity, classification, and translation. Here, hierarchies and artificial derogatory qualities have been attributed to Sterculia lanceolata through linguistic codification. This plant has become an analogy through which Zhang examines ideas around unwanted societal hierarchies attributed to people and communities due to race, class or nationality.

The composition of these works is constructed through a combination of digital collage, as well as analogue and organic painting techniques. Both paintings start with a painted drawing, the drawing is then scanned and distorted digitally and translated on to the canvas through an intuitive process. This technique allows for chance, gravity, and organic negotiations to take place on the canvas, which together, finally shape the finished works.

Zhang has chosen this motif particularly for these works to be shown in Hong Kong, to return this plant motif to its place of origin.