NICOLE ZHANG (b. 1997)
The Growing III (2025)
Acrylic on Canvas
152cm X 122cm
$6000 AUD
i am the gardener and the flower is a new body of work which reflects on the labour of personal and spiritual growth through the liturgy of gardening.
Depicting multiple figures labouring in a rain garden, the works parallel permaculture with cultivating the heart and navigating the emotional landscape in the pursuit of understanding the self and shaping character. The fruiting tree is a biblical reference to 9 fruits of the spirit (otherwise known as 9 virtues) and is an image of abundance and appeal and yet also of expectation and duty.
The figures in the garden overlap with one another and the plants within the garden, becoming indistinguishable from them. i am the gardener and the flower quotes a line in the poem “I am given a body” by Osip Mandelshtam which the work contemplates as acknowledging the individual’s agency and participation in cultivating one’s identity and place whilst also being interdependent and shaped by community.