Kimberly Chou Tsun An

“Plants have so much to give us, all we have to do is ask” —Mary Siisip Geniusz

Yours, mine, ours: Community Garden explores possibilities for growth, nourishment, collective power, and connection to the interdependent lineages of land stewardship, foraging, and care of plant allies across the globe, from Turtle Island to Palestine.

The garden encourages relationships between plants indigenous to this continent, European-introduced “settler” plants, and more recently arrived “invasive” species, many of which originated in Asia. This social sculpture centers on the cultivation of a cross-cultural (un)learning garden made of medicinal plants, interwoven with a series of facilitated walks, conversations, and rituals. These activations invite neighbors to engage with the land by learning from and making medicine with prolific non-native plants such as mugwort and multiflora rose. Programs take place around culturally and ecologically significant days—including the summer solstice and vernal equinox—and are created in collaboration with community knowledge keepers, with an emphasis on herbal medicine from the Asian diasporas that these plants call home. With this project, Chou Tsun An asks, “what are the ways we already know how to feed ourselves and free ourselves and each other?”

Related Events

Apothecary Fridays
with Kimberly Chou Tsun An
October 11, 18, 25, 2024 | 3-5pm

Herbal medicine was made in community, with facilitation from Artist Fellow Kimberly Chou Tsun An. Learning from plants integrated in her work Yours, Mine, Ours: Community Garden — and throughout the park — participants shared collective plant knowledge and folk traditions while preserving the year’s harvest as simple, soothing, and energizing tea blends for future community care.

Audioguide

Kimberly Chou Tsun An discusses her work  Yours, mine, ours: Community Garden in The Socrates Annual 2024.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK
Kimberly Chou Tsun An (0:59): My work that’s part of the Fellowship is an herbal garden of primarily Asian medical herbs, many plants of which are considered introduced, or invasive. And part of the project is about reclaiming that .These plants are mixed in with native plantings, as well as herbal medicine, blooms, and herbs from other diasporas around the world. But the herb garden is just one part of the work – a big part of it, which you can’t see in the physical, at least on-site, all the time, is the workshops, the public programming, the classes that were part of this vision – collective vision that I had, that I built in community with folks – this social sculpture.

A COMMUNITY GARDEN
Kimberly Chou Tsun An (0:50): Yours, mine, ours is as much the community garden that you see on-site at Socrates, as it is – the workshop, the different engagements, the contributions of the visitors, the Socrateens – all the folks, all the many hands that were part of walking the land with me, doing the initial planting, dropping in on the workshops and the Apothecary Open Hours that I hosted through the fall. As well as hopefully in the future, recipients and co-distributors of all of the herb tea that I’ve harvested and processed with all the folks that came through for different events.

THE FUTURE
Kimberly Chou Tsun An (0:33): It’s been a real gift to see this project grow and evolve – through all the folks participating in the social sculpture aspect, all the folks coming to the workshops, walking the land. From the beginning – planning the garden, helping me put plants into the ground, helping harvest during Apothecary Hours, and also a incredible humbling honor for folks to share their plant knowledge and bring in their own stories and lineages that they’re a part of.

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About the Artist

Kimberly Chou Tsun An (she/her) is a writer, cultural worker, organizer, and community artist. Her work explores the connections between people, plants, land, and ancestral and cultural practices — those we inherit, those we choose or grow into, and those we cultivate together in community. Relationships are our greatest resource. Her projects, almost always conducted in collaboration, often take the form of public programs: workshops, walks, and collective altar building or ceremony. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY with deep roots in Detroit, MI and Taiwan. 

Instagram: @kimberchou