CCA Singles – Zomia Garden

Lin, an artist and curator, returned to the region—her hometown—to retrace the travels of early twentieth-century plant hunters. The variable Himalayan topographies sustain an extraordinary variety of flora and fauna and, over the years, have inspired mythical imaginaries of bountiful lands. Zomia Garden focuses on Joseph Rock, a famous plant hunter in the 1920s whose approach to botany, landscape, and culture was transformed by his encounters with Indigenous Nakhi guides and their language and rituals. Juxtaposing her photographs and itinerary alongside Rocks, Lin untangles the histories of colonialism, mythmaking, and resistance woven into the hunt for rare plant species and botanical knowledge.

[publisher's note]