Hedy Zhou, Garden Square, 2025

Le Petit Versailles Blog

Jul 25

Written By Ethan Shoshan

The Garden Square sculpture is a piece made both to be viewed and walked around, intended for experience over an extended period of time. The sculpture includes an electrical light that the viewer can switch on or off depending on the surrounding light conditions. A full encounter with the Garden Square piece depends not only on the electrical light source, but also on the subtle shifts of daylight, which create subtle light effects on the installation. Visitors are encouraged to spend as much time as possible observing daylight changes in the garden, and to return under different weather conditions for a varied experience. Ultimately, the piece belongs to each viewer, to their own experience, perception, and answer. The work was commissioned by Yoshiko Chuma, The School of Hard Knocks, and supported by Le Petit Versailles, Peter Cramer, and Jack Water, in June 2025. Please note: There is a robin’s nest in the tree next to the wall near the piece. Small birds have recently hatched, and the parents may be protective, but they are beautiful. Please be careful.

Garden Square
Happening, perceiving—
Garden, streets, walls, trees,
Histories, activities, people fill this place,
Changing light day and night.
Enhance as energy concentrates.

Ever-changing perceiving.
Perceiving yourself perceiving.
A totality of being.

Hedy Zhou was born and raised in 1989 in Changsha, China. In 2012, she relocated to Shanghai to complete her ME in engineering and continued working as an architectural lighting designer on over 80 projects across Asia, including several landmark buildings in Shanghai. In 2021, Zhou moved to New York, completed her MFA in Lighting Design in Parsons School of Design, and developed Light and Place as an artistic framework that explores light, perception, and human existence, with phenomenology, dance performance, and painting as complementary explorations. Zhou currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, practicing Light and Place art while continuing her work in architectural lighting contexts.