Watch Rong Bao discussing her work 'The New Pontiff', for Valdemars Slot's inaugural season of contemporary art.

An anemone, octopus, blow up nipple or cervix, the sculpture combines childlike exuberance with witty socio-political critique. In conversation with the tea pavilion’s formal architecture, Bao satirises the relationship between social order and the vulnerable individual. Literally filled with ‘hot air’, he gazes at the landscape with one swollen eye. Hooked at the head by an umbilical power cord, the figure nods and bows as if caught in endless ritual, aping religious practice like a marionette.

Since graduating from the Royal College of Art in London (2023), Chinese artist Rong Bao has become known for her witty kinetic sculptures built from inflatable plastic. Referencing childhood and games, fetish clothing and costume, her works capture the absurd and fantastical ingrained in daily life. This year, the artist has received commissions for public sculptures by Selfridges, London and Pinacoteca Agnelli, Turin. She won the Royal Society of Sculptors’ prestigious Gilbert Bayes Award in 2024.