Wang Ting posing with the installation and the information board, with shared local fruits—starfruit and papaya seedlings—placed on the installation. ⓒ Ting Wang

Youth Task Force Country Coordinator, Dr. Ting Wang, is showcasing her eco-art installation, Drifting Baskets, at the inaugural Guangzhou Haizhu Wetland Eco-Art International Biennale in China. The exhibition, which began on January 12, 2025, will be on display for a year at Guangzhou Haizhu National Wetland Park in China.

“Drifting Baskets” art installation in the context of raised-field agroforest wetlands at Haizhu Wetland Park. ⓒ Ting Wang

Dr. Wang is a postdoctoral fellow at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, specializing in wetland governance, environmental anthropology, and political ecology in China. Her doctoral research focused on the governance of wetland parks and the construction of cultural landscapes in the Tai Lake Basin, China. During her PhD, she conducted a year-long participatory fieldwork across 36 wetland parks and construction sites. Her observations on China’s wetlands and environmental conservation efforts and interviews with conservation practitioners has been shared in her ongoing column, “A New Normal for Nature.”

Her eco-art installation was developed during a 12-day artist residency program at Guangzhou Haizhu National Wetland Park in early January 2025. The residency, co-organized by the Forestry and Wetland Administration of Haizhu District of Guangzhou and the Guangdong Society of Landscape Architecture, encouraged international young artists to create artworks using materials sourced within a 5-kilometer radius of the wetland park.

Before becoming a national wetland park, Haizhu Wetland underwent significant landscape transformations—from an estuarine inlet to floating farmland and later, a vast orchard. Today, the park sits at the intersection of urban development and agricultural landuse, reflecting a complex socio-ecological history.

Overview of the Drifting Baskets art installation. The fruit baskets at different heights provide seating for visitors to rest. The yellow baskets serve as open planting areas for visitors to grow plants, while the blue baskets contain plants collected from villagers around the wetland. ⓒ Ting Wang

Reconginizing the entangled social-ecological relationships, Dr. Wang created Drifting Baskets, an interactive land art installation that seeks to reconnect ecology and society. The installation repurposes second-hand fruit baskets, collected from a local market in Xiaozhou Village adjacent to the wetland park. These baskets are assembled into a modular structure, echoing the historical floating farmlands of Haizhu. The soil filling the baskets comes from reclaimed farmland within the wetland park, while the plants were gathered from villagers in the surrounding area.

Wang Ting is collecting a kumquat tree from a villager near the wetland. ⓒ Ting Wang

As part of the artwork, Dr. Wang recorded the portraits of Villagers who donated, plant illustrations, and their personal stories about the plants on wooden plaques. Visitors to the wetland park can engage with the installation by adopting a fruit seedling, planting it in the baskets, and leaving a personal message about their connection to the wetland. Through this exchange of plants and stories, Drifting Baskets fosters interaction between local communities and visitors, strengthening their relationship with the wetland ecosystem.

Hand-drawn portraits of plant donors and plant portraits on the wooden plaques. ⓒ Ting Wang

Additionally, the plants growing in the installation contribute to the wetland’s biodiversity, providing alternative food sources and resting spots for birds. It is expected that over time, the naturally growing vegetation and painted visitors’ messages on wooden plaques will gradually grow over the plastic structure, blurring the boundary between the man-made and the natural.

On the opening day of the exhibition, the installation attracted many visitors to the wetland park, encouraging them to stop and interact. Children had already started planting fruit seedlings. ⓒ Ting Wang

Located along the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, Guangzhou Haizhu National Wetland Park is China’s largest wetland park at the center of a megacity. This diverse ecosystem consists of a complex network of rivers and agroforestry wetlands, supporting more than 200 species of birds and various other wildlife. The park is also one of the founding members of China’s National Wetland Park Pioneer Alliance, which introduced the innovative “Wetland+” concept. This initiative explores sustainable wetland utilization, expands development models, and promotes the shared benefits of wetland conservation for all.