Work in progress image from ‘Seeing Forest’ (2023). Courtesy of Robert Zhao Renhui.
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 fieldtrips and the windows of his own apartment, Zhao’s research and documentations are condensed and organised 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, colonisation, 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 the traces of humanity in debris and litter, the abandoned tents of migrant workers, the ruins of kampungs and colonial barracks, 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 colonisation, 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.
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 eight 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.”
Commissioned by NAC and organised by SAM, this year marks Singapore’s 11th participation at the Biennale Arte. The official opening of the Singapore Pavilion will be on Wednesday, 17 April 2024 at the Arsenale’s Sale d’Armi. The exhibition will be on display on the second floor of the building from 20 April to 24 November 2024. The presentation will return to Singapore in January 2025, and will be exhibited at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark for local audiences.
