Ghost and John's Avocado Sculptures Exhibition at Bloomsbury Festival

...A Unique Celebration of Love, Kindness, and Timeless Artistry.

Opening this week at Bloomsbury Festival, an exhibition with discussions opening up alternative ways to measure growth. To explore new models of creative presentation that focus on community growth, love and kindness, personal life satisfaction, and peacebuilding, multidisciplinary art duo Ghost and John have created 50 avocado sculptures on display. These are not only the fruits they eat in their everyday life, but there is also a bit more than that. Laying precariously on the recycled glass bottles, previously holding wine, soy sauce, olive oil and more, curving stems grew out of the stone-like seeds and formed shapes as if they were hugging themselves for warmth, or strangling themselves to end all sufferings.

Ghost and John have been tending to these avocados over the past three years living in London, gently bending and tying the green sprouts into monuments that have also watched their relationship grow as they moved flats, got married, wrote up projects and more. These plants endure time with the couple and witness every laugh and tear.

We caught up with Ghost and John to hear more about the project.

Can you tell us about your creative practice and you both do?

Ghost and John are a multidisciplinary art and cultural entrepreneur duo best known for our innovative integration of performance and contemporary technologies, and our collaborative approach to delivering socio-politically pertinent projects. We mainly make performances, videos and installations.

Drawing from our experiences working in biology and computer science, we have developed a dynamic artistic practice that examines the intricacies of the body and nature, technological advances and folklore accompanying history. Our focus is on developing strategies for decolonising mainstream narratives through delivering cultural programmes telling stories of migrants, refugees, queer people, and other marginalised groups.

What inspired the Avocado Sculptures?

Since our move to London five years ago, we started our collection of houseplants by exchanging cuttings with friends and growing from food scraps, including avocado seeds. We moved these plants with us as we moved into different flats and tending to them becomes a daily ritual for us.

We have always been fascinated by Penjing or Bonsai as commonly seen in Hong Kong, our home city. It is a portrayal of natural beauty and utopia, simultaneously a record of happenings and history. Through pruning and decorating the plant, it is a collaboration between humans and nature, contemporary and history.

What is the meaning behind the collection and concept?

Laying precariously on glass bottles that previously held wine, soy sauce or olive oil, curving stems grew out of the stone-like seeds and formed shapes as if they were hugging themselves for warmth, or strangling themselves from sufferings.

Living in London, Ghost and John have been tending to these avocados over the past three years, gently bending and tying the green sprouts into sculptures. These living sculptures have watched Ghost and John’s relationship grow as they moved flats, got married, met new friends, developed projects, etc. They endure time with the couple and witness every laugh and tear in their everyday lives.

The sculptures that have a Molotov cocktail-like appearance are also imbued with socio-political content that deals with issues of identity, race, religion, and immigration. Each sculptural plant depicts an emotion, scenario or story from the artists’ imagination, telling their stories of emigration and belonging. Their strange organic shapes simultaneously convey opposing ideas such as beauty and disfiguration, joy and despair, growth and dormancy. These dualities convey that there are multiple dimensions to every person that are sculptured by past experiences, choices and failures, but also success, serenity and hope.

The theme of this year’s Bloomsbury Festival is Grow, how does this exhibition connect with the theme of the festival?

As we were writing for this year's participation in the festival, we were thinking a lot about how to define growth outside of capital growth, especially as migrant queer artists.

In our society, growth is typically measured by numbers and statistics such as GDP, reputation, and rankings. We are thinking about ways to prioritise spiritual growth, personal life satisfaction, community bondings, and peacebuilding.

Through presenting this exhibition, we are contemplating our roles under the current political and climate crisis where we often feel out of control. How we could see ourselves as active agents in these bigger questions is an ongoing question for us as artists.

What do you love about Bloomsbury Festival?

It's our third year working with Bloomsbury Festival. It has always been a pleasure to be alongside our brilliant artists and communities who show a vibrant and diverse London that is a bit different from the stereotypes. Here we see humanity shine through the usual facades and stories being heard and highlighted. To have a festival like this that focuses on collaboration, care and relationship in a hyper-commercial city is itself, an urban miracle.

This year’s Bloomsbury Festival opens on Friday 13th October and sees various local venues play host to an exciting programme of theatre and music performances, art and science exhibitions and talks and local walks associated with the theme grow. This annual celebration of the area – now in its eighteenth year - blends the best of contemporary Bloomsbury’s hotbed of creativity with a nod to its pioneering past.