Robert Zhao Renhui: Seeing Forest
Robert Zhao Renhui in collaboration with curator Haeju Kim for the Singapore Pavilion
An unassuming patch of greenery reveals the life and stories it holds – but only with patient observation. In Seeing Forest, Singaporean artist Robert Zhao offers an evocative exploration of secondary forests – forests regrown from deforested land due to human intervention such as development and plantation. Often taken over by invasive plant and animal species introduced to Singapore in the 19th century, these thresholds between primary forest and developed areas offer insights into a complex web of human and non-human co-existence. Rooted in several years of accumulated observations from countless field trips and the windows of his own apartment, Zhao's research and documentation are condensed and organized into an installation that explores the multifaceted life of Singapore's secondary forests and the manifold worlds within, encapsulating the landscape's histories of settlement, colonization, migration and mutual co-existence amongst species.
Going beyond the humdrum existence of a forest, visitors will be invited to examine the ways in which human urban design can shape the natural world and result in a new ecosystem of migrant species that echoes the trajectories and makeup of a city's human population.
In secondary forests, we can find traces of humanity in debris and litter, the abandoned tents of migrant workers, the ruins of kampungs1 and colonial barracks, and cast aside dustbins. Yet there is life, too. A canopy of fast-growing, non-native Albizia trees weaves a lacey web against the sky. Samba deer, escaped from the local zoo in the 1970s, form large roaming populations. Japanese sparrowhawks, flying in from Siberia, pause to drink from a concrete drain.
Through an assemblage of video works and sculptural installations, the exhibition created for the Singapore Pavilion explores the lesser-known stories of intersection and moments of apparent dependence between human society and nature. The presentation reveals how these transitional spaces offer points of intersection for colonization, migration, sustainability, and discovery while suggesting that the edge of a city — especially one that is so carefully planned— may be the most intense frontier in existence.
"Every forest is liminal, even one that grows in the center of the city. Disregarded and disposable in urban planning, it remains a universe unto itself."
Artist Robert Zhao Renhui says: "Secondary forests are a second chance for nature to find a way to reclaim its place after environmental and human disruptions. They provide a radically hospitable space for a variety of living subjects, where novel organisms are able to thrive despite and because of human activity – an abandoned dustbin, for example, turns into a waterhole for migrant birds. These spaces are also rich in histories and ecologies, and this interest has driven the exploration of these multilayered ecosystems in my practice over the last seven years. I hope that my presentation captures the richness and variety of the sensuous surroundings and allows us to experience these spaces as active, animate, and open-ended."
The Pavilion's curator, Haeju Kim, explains: "Robert Zhao's projects have served as lenses that highlight the resilience of nature and the various interactions that occur when such resilience overlaps with human life and society. In the meanings generated by these observations, we are offered a rare glimpse into the true complexities and realities of the natural world around us. The exhibition will be a reminder that even in the most modernized places, humans cannot wrest initiative and tenacity from nature, and we are only part of the broader ecosystem and intricate web of the world. Through the exhibition's sensorial experience, I hope that audiences can listen attentively to what nature says to us."