Somewhere between entangled botanic installations and environments that elicit voyeuristic tendencies lies Trevor Yeung’s investigations into distant intimacy and interspecies relationships. The Hong Kong-based artist is known for a practice that integrates found objects, and plants, creating staged scenerios representing modes of affection, sociability, and desire. For his recent exhibition, “Soft ground,” at London’s Gasworks, Yeung delved into the capital’s notorious cruising area of Hampstead Heath to explore the anonymous interactions between humans amid the park’s natural environment. One photograph taken by Yeung during his research shows a mushroom growing on the trunk of a tree above a discarded condom, highlighting the imposition of human desire on the natural setting through discreet, and often indiscreet means—a tacit reflection of his personal gaze and private proclivities. In an upcoming issue of ArtAsiaPacific, associate editor Alex Yiu talks to Yeung, who is representing Hong Kong at the Venice Biennale in 2024, about the ideas behind his works, his enigmatic connections with plants and photography, and the broader social and natural geographies in which they operate.