This work focuses on the Beijing poplar tree modification project, aiming to discuss the ambiguous connections between politics, ecology, controlled nature, and the social shaping of femininity through an image installation design.
Trees in human society serve functional purposes: climate regulation, timber economy, or urban aesthetics. Walking down the streets of Beijing, poplar trees struggle to maintain their original forms—they are assigned gendered shapes, pruned into certain forms, and punctured with pinholes. Poplar trees designated as female are injected with sterilisation drugs to prevent their catkins from disrupting roads.
This is akin to the silenced women shaped by society, always forced to suppress their natural instincts to affirm their social status. Thus, this project is not only a discourse on abstract forests and functionalised nature but also a reflection on eco-feminism.