On Experiential Aesthetics

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A talk surrounding the artist’s recent interventions within the spaces of several historic gardens exploring both the cultural and natural modes of being in the world. Zheng will discuss the site-specific installations involving light, space, video and his interdisciplinary workshop. One is developed through interactions with a resident Monk at Kenninji, the oldest Zen monastery in Japan, and the other is a project which ponders Chinese notions of self-cultivation, movement and embodied perception through the design of an urban replica of a Suzhou scholar’s garden-courtyard in China. Through this presentation, the artist seeks to start a new dialog with local artists and curators in Dubai on the historic functions and experiential aesthetics of the garden in the Middle East.