Geopoetics

Plant Memory and Fictional Archaeology

2025-2026

Concept & Framework

Geopoetics: Plant Memory and Fictional Archaeology is a long-term, practice-based research project. It approaches plants as objects of inquiry structured by a dual framework: on the visual level, plants appear as recognizable and translatable sign forms; on the cultural level, they function as material carriers of knowledge, experience, and geographic specificity. Through this duality, plants are not only objects of natural representation, but also mediators through which cultural knowledge is formed and preserved.

In this project, “memory” does not simply refer to a mechanism for preserving the past, but rather to a temporal-operational structure. On the one hand, memory acts as the psychic sedimentation of past experience, forming a cultural layer that can be accumulated and transformed. On the other hand, memory is also prospective: its mode of operation allows for the extrapolation and generation of future cultural imaginaries, thereby positioning memory as a generative logic oriented toward future ruins.

Based on this understanding, the project adopts “fictional archaeology” as its methodological framework. Unlike conventional archaeology, which excavates and classifies existing artifacts, fictional archaeology situates contemporary materials and plant forms within a projected future archaeological context, turning the act of creation itself into a process of artifact formation. Within this framework, material is no longer passive evidence to be preserved; rather, through temporal projection and reconstruction, it is pre-inscribed as a “possible history.” A series of relief-like paintings, resembling stratigraphic slices, emerges as carriers of and fictions on symbolic knowledge systems associated with specific plants, forming a cultural imaginary that connects past, present, and imagined futures.excavate both personal and collective experience, making visible the relationship between material and memory, and attempting to locate my own position within a constantly shifting world

Material Methodology & Practice

In practical terms, the process begins with the collection of morphological data and local knowledge narratives related to specific plants, which are then translated into non-representational structural sketches. These sketches are not intended for depiction, but serve as guides for material accumulation, allowing the final forms to exist between recognition and estrangement, thus constituting “quasi artifacts” that resist classification within existing taxonomic systems.

My practice operates between relief painting and sculpture, primarily constructing plant forms through processes of material layering and accumulation. Plants are treated not as objects to be represented, but as material structures to be constructed. Through the gradual buildup and shaping of plaster-like substances, plant forms are not imprinted or reproduced, but instead emerge through the interaction between material and the body, becoming relief-like material presences. This process transforms plants from “natural outcomes” into “processes of artificial material construction.”

The project also takes “material painting” as a central methodological approach, employing substances with inherent temporality and transformative potential, including calcium carbonate, soil, gravel, clay, minerals, fossils, mother-of-pearl, and construction materials. These are layered through mixtures with PVA and plaster. As these materials dry and settle, they form structures analogous to geological cross-sections, rendering the pictorial surface a material record of time. However, this record does not represent the past; rather, it operates as a constructive engagement with temporal rupture, accumulation, and reconfiguration. These materials are selected not only for their physical properties, but also for their embedded temporal scales: minerals and fossils correspond to geological time, soil carries ecological cycles, and construction materials point to the historical layers of human activity. Their coexistence on a single surface creates a site in which multiple temporalities converge

Perception & Context

As viewers approach the work, the image is initially perceived as a plant form. Yet at closer proximity, the rough surface of mineral particles and layered structures becomes increasingly evident, shifting perception from image recognition to an awareness of material temporality. The viewer’s gaze oscillates between “identification” and “tactile imagination,” leading to the realization that these forms do not represent nature, but are the result of accumulated time.

Building on this, the project also engages with the generative relationships between different systems of knowledge. Institutional disciplines such as botany, archaeology, and geology provide stable frameworks for classification and description, while practice-based knowledge—derived from farmers, artisans, and gatherers in close interaction with the land—constitutes a more fluid system grounded in embodied experience. These two forms of knowledge are not oppositional; rather, they overlap through everyday practice and cultural sedimentation, forming a multi-layered cognitive landscape. However, they do not always align seamlessly: institutional classification tends toward stability and standardization, whereas experiential knowledge is situational and indeterminate. This project seeks to preserve these differences, allowing the work to reveal visible traces of “distortion” and “displacement” within processes of knowledge translation.

Through transregional residency experiences (Greece, Taiwan, Shanghai, Germany, and the United Kingdom), the project incorporates diverse phytogeographic conditions and cultural interpretative systems into its process, positioning residency not merely as a site of production, but as an experimental space for knowledge exchange and temporal layering. In this context, each work functions as a “prefabricated model of a future artifact,” continuously testing the translational relationships between material, memory, and knowledge