The group was inspired by “Half Farmer, Half X”, an idea introduced in Japan in the 1990s by Naoki Shiomi, a salesman-turned-environmental activist who advocated for a more sustainable, rural way of living. He encouraged individuals to practise small-scale farming to provide enough food for themselves and their families, and spend the remainder of their time on a personal pursuit from which they gain fulfilment. The Sangwoodgoon collective was initiated by photographer Jenny Li and educator Kith Tsang, while other members hold part-time jobs such as writer or artist when they are not farming.

There are no leaders in the group, but rather guides who take up temporary leadership roles which change depending on what is needed at a particular time. Membership involves a steep learning curve. “It seemed to be a failure loop every time,” says Lo of both the protest and the process of farming. “I had to learn a lot. You can do everything perfectly and correctly; you might try to grow the perfect eggplant, but one day it could just die, and you have no idea why.” 

But what Lo had previously perceived as failure in fact transformed into opportunities for new ideas to be born. “When you’re weeding alone especially, it’s like meditation,” she says of the repetitive nature of the task. The measured speed at which one is required to work on a farm allows one to “see how nature really works; you realise how slow it is, and how there are no immediate results. Farming is like meditation, and in the slowness and through meditation, ideas jump out.” 

The ideas Lo has come up with while farming apply to her own “Half X”: her art practice, which explores the relationship between humans and nature, and other ecological concerns. Her photographs, videos and installations are imbued with a meditative quality and reflect a stillness and slowness similar to that which she experiences when farming.

In her work, Lo also often shifts the focus from a human perspective to that of animals and nature. Her art was recently on view in January, in A Messenger—Passerby in Our Battlefields, an exhibition presented at Goethe Institute Hong Kong. Voices from Nowhere (2018), which features footage as seen from the varying perspectives of birds, fish and farmers exploring the interdependent dynamics of fish farming in Tai Sang Wai in Yuen Long. “It’s a demonstration of sustainability,” says Lo of the work which was commissioned by the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society. The piece reveals how birds benefit from consuming fish that were bred in clean water; it is more common for farmers to add chemicals to the breeding pools, as this leads to more fish in a shorter time span and therefore bigger profits. Of course, it is more damaging to the natural world, from the birds that feed on the water to the land.

Lo also highlighted nature’s agency and humans’ attempts to control it in Vain Hope (2020), a three-minute video work shown in the 2020 exhibition for Give No Words but Mum at the Eaton hotel’s art space Tomorrow Maybe. Capturing an imagined instance in which humans try and communicate verbally with plants, the work features a woman’s failed attempt, again inspired by her time with Sangwoodgoon. “In farming, you have to observe and interact with the plant and end up having so many questions for the plant,” she says. “[The work] came from me imagining if [the plant could speak] and what the plant would say to me.” 

The artist most recently participated in State-less, an exhibition for the Kakilang festival in London, which ran for a month from March 11, with a new iteration of The Days Before The Silent Spring (2020), originally presented in 2021 at the WMA art space in Hong Kong. Interspersed with imagery and footage of Sangwoodgoon, the film reflects on the collective’s growth and decade-long journey, while Lo addresses the themes that are ubiquitous in her practice: nature’s slow, unpredictable yet adaptable growth, and the inevitability of failure.

Lo believes failure is certain in all aspects of life, including art and farming—but this doesn’t deter her from continuing to create and grow, and showcase how nature works. “Neither art nor farming solve any problems,” the artist says, “but they make problems and patterns visible, and create an entry point into the possibilities for change.”

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