With its labyrinthine network of canals and meandering cobblestone alleyways, it’s unusual to experience the sights and sounds of a jungle in the picturesque lagoon that is the city of Venice.
Yet, Singaporean artist Robert Zhao Renhui has managed to bring the likeness of an entire forest to his exhibition for this year’s Venice Biennale.
Except, it’s no ordinary forest – according to Zhao, it is a “mysterious, forested zone” that is rooted in fantasy as well as a real woodland area in Bukit Panjang that sits across from his HDB block.
He refers to these spaces as "secondary forests". “A secondary forest is a forest that has been disturbed by human activities and this could be a colonial military barrack, a rubber plantation or a kampung, a village. And then somehow, the land was laid to waste and the forest kind of grew over,” he explained.
The culmination of the 41-year-old’s decades-long study of secondary forests is Seeing Forest. It's an exhibition that Zhao put together with South Korean curator Haeju Kim as an exploration of urban design shaping the natural world and vice versa, resulting in a new ecosystem of migrant species that reflects the histories and trajectories of mankind.
Singapore Pavilion artist Robert Zhao Renhui and curator Haeju Kim with ‘Trash Stratum'. (Photo: Robert Zhao Renhui)
Held once every two years, the Venice Biennale is considered to be the “Olympics of the art world’ and traditionally sees the participation of scores of international artists. This is Singapore's 11th year of participation, with several other noted Singaporean artists representing the country. The event is set to run till Nov 24.
Held once every two years, the Venice Biennale is considered to be the “Olympics of the art world’ and traditionally sees scores of international artists participate in contemporary art exhibitions in the sprawling spaces of the Giardini and the Arsenale. (Photo: CNA/Gaya Chandramohan)
Hosted at the Arsenale complex, the Singapore Pavilion sits in a 250 sqm space in a cluster of 16th century barracks called the Sale d’Armi. For Zhao’s exhibition, the exhibition space – originally an open area – was reimagined with walls to create a more intimate setting to elevate the experience.
Stepping into Zhao’s physical actualisation of this whimsical zone is dramatic: passing through dark curtains, visitors are first met with a gloaming typical of jungles canopied by heavy foliage. As their eyes adjust to the darkness, a looming wooden structure of objects reveals itself in tandem with an earthy musk. In a far corner, an owl gleams under soft accent lighting.
The central structure of the installation is the art work, Trash Stratum, which borrows the concept of a cabinet of curiosities. (Photo: CNA/Gaya Chandramohan)
Then, two massive screens in the middle of the room crackle to life, igniting the dark space with evocative scenes and sounds. A rubbish bin left behind by migrant workers serves as a watering hole for migratory birds; a wild boar giving birth; deafening sounds of an excavator clearing a forest.
Visitors to the Singapore Pavilion at this year’s 60th Biennale Arte will encounter Zhao and Kim’s triptych that is an accumulation of photos, videos and structural installations of creatures that inhabit wild jungles in Bukit Panjang and other parts of Singapore.
Installation view of ‘The Owl, The Travellers and The Cement Drain’ (2024), as part of ‘Seeing Forest’ at the Singapore Pavilion at Biennale Arte 2024. (Photo: Robert Zhao Renhui)
“My hope is to create a rich and ambiguous space where visitors can experience an imaginary forest where the barriers between human and non-human, past and future, are abandoned; where humans, animals, plants, and possibly ghosts, co-exist in various overlapping realities, where visitors will be bombarded by sounds and images that conjure up beauty and mystery and weirdness,” Zhao said.
WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY
Zhao first became interested in secondary forests in 2017, when he was in the midst of his residency at the NTU Centre of Contemporary Art located at Gillman Barracks, and a small secondary forest flourishing behind his studio piqued his interest.
“I put out a camera just behind my studio, to kind of know what is the kind of animal life that will be in this secondary forest that used to be a British barrack. And from there, I started to kind of walk and venture into secondary forests that are beside the road, and (are) kind of very unassuming,” Zhao said.
A replica of the cameras Zhao installed in secondary forests to capture footage of wildlife hidden in the art installation Trash Stratum. (Photo: CNA/Gaya Chandramohan)
Known for his fascination with complex and co-mingled relationships between nature and culture, the 2010 National Arts Council Young Artist award recipient then began paying attention to the small forest he lived by, especially after his young son pointed out the animals grazing the perimeter from the window of their 26th floor apartment of their HDB block.
“Thanks to my son – who during the COVID-19 (lockdown) looked out constantly at this forest – we noticed that there was a wild boar that was making really strange turns round and round, and then we realized that she was making a nest and subsequently, she also gave birth to six piglets,” he mused.
“And all this in full view from my window, and that was when I started to realize that oh, if I pay attention and if I slow down, I can kind of really observe and take in these stories just right from my window.”
From his window, Zhao and his five-year-old son, Noah, have spotted wild boars, raptors, migratory birds and even a substantial herd of Sambar deer, previously thought to be wiped out in Singapore, frequenting the little patch. Zhao believes he’s likely the only person with photographic evidence of the deer population.
A thermal image of a herd of deer. (Photo: Robert Zhao Renhui)
Zhao would then train his camera on the animals to capture photos and videos of them from his vantage point.
“Sometimes, when I see the animals from my window, I’ll walk down or cycle down to go and photograph them,” he said.
Intrigued by the small ecosystem thriving resiliently on the fringes of a built environment, Zhao went on to install motion-capturing and body temperature cameras in the forest to observe the wildlife that had made it its home.
SEEING FOREST – A TRIPTYCH
All the photos and videos he’s carefully captured over the last few years is what make up his Seeing Forest exhibition.
Between the secondary forest at Gillman Barracks and Bukit Panjang, Zhao came across more than 60 creatures and their relationships to the environment around them. While traversing the forests, he also found remnants of military facilities from the British colonial era and the Japanese occupation, as well as items left behind by migrant workers.
“Seeing Forest is an accumulation of videos, photographs, materials and kind of trash that I have accumulated and collected from secondary forests. And all the different works that are on show now are little stories that I've collected or kind of encountered during my time and research into forests,” said the accomplished artist who’s been featured in biennales around the world in Busan, Gwangju, Singapore, Taipei, Jakarta and Sydney.
The central work of Zhao’s exhibition is a filmic essay titled The Owl, The Travellers And The Cement Drain. Displayed on a two-channel video installation, it explores a series of hypnotic scenes from the forest, moments shot by Zhao from his apartment, as well as motion-capturing and body temperature camera footage.
Given a black-and-white treatment, the 46-minute video plays 10 poignant short stories that introduce viewers to the concept of a secondary forest. It is complemented by a fluctuating narrative of two human characters that traverse the forest.
“It’s just that for this work, I think it must be black and white … the colours are actually quite nice, but when you switch it to black and white, you just focus on the textures of the forest and the light … it actually makes you look harder because a lot of animals kind of just camouflage and disappear,” said Zhao of the monochromatic film.
Interspersed throughout the video is also archival footage of soldiers from the Japanese Occupation and the British colonisation – a poignant reminder of the presence of human histories entangling with those of nature’s.
Trash Stratum is a crumbling cabinet made of stacked wooden boxes, rope, and various objects from the forest that serve as reminders of human history. (Photo: CNA/Gaya Chandramohan)
The second piece of artwork is a sculptural video installation called Trash Stratum. Drawing from the concept of a ‘cabinet of curiosities’, the rickety wooden structure made of stacked wooden boxes is carefully tied together with rope.
Glinting at odd angles all over the structure are fragments of liquor bottles, glass and ceramic shards, and pieces of brick that Zhao had found during his forays into secondary forests.
A glass jar fragment on display in the Trash Stratum exhibit. (Photo: CNA/Gaya Chandramohan)
A fragment of a brick on display in the Trash Stratum exhibit. (Photo: CNA/Gaya Chandramohan)
Screens embedded in the Trash Stratum exhibit are synced to the main installation, reflecting scenes as the narrative moves along. (Photo: CNA/Gaya Chandramohan)
“No, we were basically shipping trash from Singapore to Venice,” Zhao chuckled, when asked if he had any issues passing through customs.
Within the 4.5m by 3m structure, 12 screens of varying sizes are synced with The Owl, The Travellers And The Cement Drain video to display various creatures visiting a watering hole in the form of an abandoned dustbin. At certain points, a few of the screens roll archival footage of the Japanese Occupation and the British colonisation.
Interestingly, when Zhao and his two assistants first put the structure together in Singapore, it took on a different configuration than the one in Venice.
“We had to kind of try to build in a way that was in harmony with the rest of the space. I had several conversations with my curator about how the shape of the things should be and then we kind of built it. My two assistants also made decisions on how to put this together. Then in the end, it just became like that. It's kind of quite intuitive,” mused Zhao.
Seeing Forest’s final installation, Buffy, depicts a buffy fish owl – a bird native to Southeast Asia – propped up on a smaller structure similar to the Trash Stratum. The artwork, a digital print on plexiglass, shows us the owl’s back
The Buffy installation. (Photo: CNA/Gaya Chandramohan)
According to Zhao, it is a reference to the Heraclitan fragment, “nature loves to hide”, which alludes to human beings being unable to understand the true essence of things.
“For me, the owl is one of the strange creatures that appears at the Gillman Barracks. It's a native owl and I think you would normally associate them with more pristine habitats, but this one particularly has learned to live in a drain and feed off catfishes in a small drain,” said Zhao about the concept of the artwork.
An imaginary forest map that depicts that overview of the artist's explorations and research into Singapore's secondary forests. (Photo: CNA/Gaya Chandramohan)
To guide visitors along his and Kim’s vision, Zhao also designed an “imaginary forest map”. The map presents his extensive exploration and research he’s conducted on secondary forests, and also incorporates symbolic elements that Zhao has encountered on his frequent walks and his remote sensing cameras.
A close-up of elements in the imaginary forest map. (Photo: CNA/Gaya Chandramohan)
SECONDARY FORESTS – WHERE MANY IDENTITIES COLLIDE
Zhao’s hope for visitors to his exhibit is that it piques their interest.
“I hope people can walk away with a sense of awe or curiosity, they become more curious about what all these videos are talking about … I hope that through the video somehow, it sparks enough interest for (them) to want to know a bit more about what all these stories are in a Singapore context,” he said.
While Zhao believes Seeing Forest is the most ambitious piece he will ever do, it doesn’t mean he’ll stop seeking out secondary forests and the mysterious ecosystems they give sanctuary to.
“I think it's going to be very hard for me to stop looking at the forest outside my window, or to document any change of it because it's just so near. So no, I don’t forsee that I can move away from looking at the forest anytime soon.
CNA Lifestyle was in Venice at the invitation of Charles & Keith Group Foundation, a key supporter for the Singapore Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2024.
Continue reading...
Yet, Singaporean artist Robert Zhao Renhui has managed to bring the likeness of an entire forest to his exhibition for this year’s Venice Biennale.
Except, it’s no ordinary forest – according to Zhao, it is a “mysterious, forested zone” that is rooted in fantasy as well as a real woodland area in Bukit Panjang that sits across from his HDB block.
He refers to these spaces as "secondary forests". “A secondary forest is a forest that has been disturbed by human activities and this could be a colonial military barrack, a rubber plantation or a kampung, a village. And then somehow, the land was laid to waste and the forest kind of grew over,” he explained.
The culmination of the 41-year-old’s decades-long study of secondary forests is Seeing Forest. It's an exhibition that Zhao put together with South Korean curator Haeju Kim as an exploration of urban design shaping the natural world and vice versa, resulting in a new ecosystem of migrant species that reflects the histories and trajectories of mankind.
Singapore Pavilion artist Robert Zhao Renhui and curator Haeju Kim with ‘Trash Stratum'. (Photo: Robert Zhao Renhui)
Held once every two years, the Venice Biennale is considered to be the “Olympics of the art world’ and traditionally sees the participation of scores of international artists. This is Singapore's 11th year of participation, with several other noted Singaporean artists representing the country. The event is set to run till Nov 24.
Held once every two years, the Venice Biennale is considered to be the “Olympics of the art world’ and traditionally sees scores of international artists participate in contemporary art exhibitions in the sprawling spaces of the Giardini and the Arsenale. (Photo: CNA/Gaya Chandramohan)
Hosted at the Arsenale complex, the Singapore Pavilion sits in a 250 sqm space in a cluster of 16th century barracks called the Sale d’Armi. For Zhao’s exhibition, the exhibition space – originally an open area – was reimagined with walls to create a more intimate setting to elevate the experience.
Stepping into Zhao’s physical actualisation of this whimsical zone is dramatic: passing through dark curtains, visitors are first met with a gloaming typical of jungles canopied by heavy foliage. As their eyes adjust to the darkness, a looming wooden structure of objects reveals itself in tandem with an earthy musk. In a far corner, an owl gleams under soft accent lighting.
The central structure of the installation is the art work, Trash Stratum, which borrows the concept of a cabinet of curiosities. (Photo: CNA/Gaya Chandramohan)
Then, two massive screens in the middle of the room crackle to life, igniting the dark space with evocative scenes and sounds. A rubbish bin left behind by migrant workers serves as a watering hole for migratory birds; a wild boar giving birth; deafening sounds of an excavator clearing a forest.
Visitors to the Singapore Pavilion at this year’s 60th Biennale Arte will encounter Zhao and Kim’s triptych that is an accumulation of photos, videos and structural installations of creatures that inhabit wild jungles in Bukit Panjang and other parts of Singapore.
Installation view of ‘The Owl, The Travellers and The Cement Drain’ (2024), as part of ‘Seeing Forest’ at the Singapore Pavilion at Biennale Arte 2024. (Photo: Robert Zhao Renhui)
“My hope is to create a rich and ambiguous space where visitors can experience an imaginary forest where the barriers between human and non-human, past and future, are abandoned; where humans, animals, plants, and possibly ghosts, co-exist in various overlapping realities, where visitors will be bombarded by sounds and images that conjure up beauty and mystery and weirdness,” Zhao said.
WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY
Zhao first became interested in secondary forests in 2017, when he was in the midst of his residency at the NTU Centre of Contemporary Art located at Gillman Barracks, and a small secondary forest flourishing behind his studio piqued his interest.
“I put out a camera just behind my studio, to kind of know what is the kind of animal life that will be in this secondary forest that used to be a British barrack. And from there, I started to kind of walk and venture into secondary forests that are beside the road, and (are) kind of very unassuming,” Zhao said.
A replica of the cameras Zhao installed in secondary forests to capture footage of wildlife hidden in the art installation Trash Stratum. (Photo: CNA/Gaya Chandramohan)
Known for his fascination with complex and co-mingled relationships between nature and culture, the 2010 National Arts Council Young Artist award recipient then began paying attention to the small forest he lived by, especially after his young son pointed out the animals grazing the perimeter from the window of their 26th floor apartment of their HDB block.
“Thanks to my son – who during the COVID-19 (lockdown) looked out constantly at this forest – we noticed that there was a wild boar that was making really strange turns round and round, and then we realized that she was making a nest and subsequently, she also gave birth to six piglets,” he mused.
“And all this in full view from my window, and that was when I started to realize that oh, if I pay attention and if I slow down, I can kind of really observe and take in these stories just right from my window.”
From his window, Zhao and his five-year-old son, Noah, have spotted wild boars, raptors, migratory birds and even a substantial herd of Sambar deer, previously thought to be wiped out in Singapore, frequenting the little patch. Zhao believes he’s likely the only person with photographic evidence of the deer population.
A thermal image of a herd of deer. (Photo: Robert Zhao Renhui)
Zhao would then train his camera on the animals to capture photos and videos of them from his vantage point.
“Sometimes, when I see the animals from my window, I’ll walk down or cycle down to go and photograph them,” he said.
Intrigued by the small ecosystem thriving resiliently on the fringes of a built environment, Zhao went on to install motion-capturing and body temperature cameras in the forest to observe the wildlife that had made it its home.
SEEING FOREST – A TRIPTYCH
All the photos and videos he’s carefully captured over the last few years is what make up his Seeing Forest exhibition.
Between the secondary forest at Gillman Barracks and Bukit Panjang, Zhao came across more than 60 creatures and their relationships to the environment around them. While traversing the forests, he also found remnants of military facilities from the British colonial era and the Japanese occupation, as well as items left behind by migrant workers.
“Seeing Forest is an accumulation of videos, photographs, materials and kind of trash that I have accumulated and collected from secondary forests. And all the different works that are on show now are little stories that I've collected or kind of encountered during my time and research into forests,” said the accomplished artist who’s been featured in biennales around the world in Busan, Gwangju, Singapore, Taipei, Jakarta and Sydney.
The central work of Zhao’s exhibition is a filmic essay titled The Owl, The Travellers And The Cement Drain. Displayed on a two-channel video installation, it explores a series of hypnotic scenes from the forest, moments shot by Zhao from his apartment, as well as motion-capturing and body temperature camera footage.
Given a black-and-white treatment, the 46-minute video plays 10 poignant short stories that introduce viewers to the concept of a secondary forest. It is complemented by a fluctuating narrative of two human characters that traverse the forest.
“It’s just that for this work, I think it must be black and white … the colours are actually quite nice, but when you switch it to black and white, you just focus on the textures of the forest and the light … it actually makes you look harder because a lot of animals kind of just camouflage and disappear,” said Zhao of the monochromatic film.
Interspersed throughout the video is also archival footage of soldiers from the Japanese Occupation and the British colonisation – a poignant reminder of the presence of human histories entangling with those of nature’s.
Trash Stratum is a crumbling cabinet made of stacked wooden boxes, rope, and various objects from the forest that serve as reminders of human history. (Photo: CNA/Gaya Chandramohan)
The second piece of artwork is a sculptural video installation called Trash Stratum. Drawing from the concept of a ‘cabinet of curiosities’, the rickety wooden structure made of stacked wooden boxes is carefully tied together with rope.
Glinting at odd angles all over the structure are fragments of liquor bottles, glass and ceramic shards, and pieces of brick that Zhao had found during his forays into secondary forests.
A glass jar fragment on display in the Trash Stratum exhibit. (Photo: CNA/Gaya Chandramohan)
A fragment of a brick on display in the Trash Stratum exhibit. (Photo: CNA/Gaya Chandramohan)
Screens embedded in the Trash Stratum exhibit are synced to the main installation, reflecting scenes as the narrative moves along. (Photo: CNA/Gaya Chandramohan)
“No, we were basically shipping trash from Singapore to Venice,” Zhao chuckled, when asked if he had any issues passing through customs.
Within the 4.5m by 3m structure, 12 screens of varying sizes are synced with The Owl, The Travellers And The Cement Drain video to display various creatures visiting a watering hole in the form of an abandoned dustbin. At certain points, a few of the screens roll archival footage of the Japanese Occupation and the British colonisation.
Interestingly, when Zhao and his two assistants first put the structure together in Singapore, it took on a different configuration than the one in Venice.
“We had to kind of try to build in a way that was in harmony with the rest of the space. I had several conversations with my curator about how the shape of the things should be and then we kind of built it. My two assistants also made decisions on how to put this together. Then in the end, it just became like that. It's kind of quite intuitive,” mused Zhao.
Seeing Forest’s final installation, Buffy, depicts a buffy fish owl – a bird native to Southeast Asia – propped up on a smaller structure similar to the Trash Stratum. The artwork, a digital print on plexiglass, shows us the owl’s back
The Buffy installation. (Photo: CNA/Gaya Chandramohan)
According to Zhao, it is a reference to the Heraclitan fragment, “nature loves to hide”, which alludes to human beings being unable to understand the true essence of things.
“For me, the owl is one of the strange creatures that appears at the Gillman Barracks. It's a native owl and I think you would normally associate them with more pristine habitats, but this one particularly has learned to live in a drain and feed off catfishes in a small drain,” said Zhao about the concept of the artwork.
An imaginary forest map that depicts that overview of the artist's explorations and research into Singapore's secondary forests. (Photo: CNA/Gaya Chandramohan)
To guide visitors along his and Kim’s vision, Zhao also designed an “imaginary forest map”. The map presents his extensive exploration and research he’s conducted on secondary forests, and also incorporates symbolic elements that Zhao has encountered on his frequent walks and his remote sensing cameras.
A close-up of elements in the imaginary forest map. (Photo: CNA/Gaya Chandramohan)
SECONDARY FORESTS – WHERE MANY IDENTITIES COLLIDE
Zhao’s hope for visitors to his exhibit is that it piques their interest.
“I hope people can walk away with a sense of awe or curiosity, they become more curious about what all these videos are talking about … I hope that through the video somehow, it sparks enough interest for (them) to want to know a bit more about what all these stories are in a Singapore context,” he said.
While Zhao believes Seeing Forest is the most ambitious piece he will ever do, it doesn’t mean he’ll stop seeking out secondary forests and the mysterious ecosystems they give sanctuary to.
“I think it's going to be very hard for me to stop looking at the forest outside my window, or to document any change of it because it's just so near. So no, I don’t forsee that I can move away from looking at the forest anytime soon.
CNA Lifestyle was in Venice at the invitation of Charles & Keith Group Foundation, a key supporter for the Singapore Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2024.
Continue reading...