After almost a decade of capturing Singapore’s wildlife and transforming discarded materials into art, photographer and artist Robert Zhao has achieved an incredible milestone: representing Singapore at the prestigious Venice Biennale.
Alongside curator Haeju Kim, Robert unveiled his groundbreaking immersive exhibition, ‘Seeing Forest’, showcasing stunning footage of wildlife in Singapore’s secondary forests.
The scenes, along with found artefacts, showcased things that most people have never seen before.
Image courtesy of the artist.
From 15 Jan to 18 May, Singaporeans can have front-row seats to the captivating world of local fauna — from dramatic sights of monitor lizards locked in a tense fight to gripping glimpses of the Lion City’s abundant fauna such as macaques, snakes, and birds — all for free.
Robert’s homecoming exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) promises to be a larger, more immersive experience, and MS News finds out more about the work that goes into such a show.
Robert gets the material for his art from the secondary forests of Singapore — areas of woodland which was once cleared for human use, but had since regenerated over the years.
His 26th-floor Bukit Panjang home overlooks a secondary forest, and it is there where he often films local wildlife with his young son.
“My son is often next to me when I’m shooting the footage from my home,” said the 42-year-old photographer.
“So he was actually excited to watch the videos again in this Singapore show.”
Image courtesy of Singapore Art Museum.
Robert’s family accompanied him to Venice, where he noted that out of the tens of thousands who appreciated his work, kids were probably his best audience.
Like his six-year-old son, other children were entranced by the wildlife scenes, their eyes glued to the screens, eagerly hunting for wildlife moments they might have missed.
But Robert’s art isn’t just about filming wildlife from the comfort of his home.
His work involves countless hours spent trudging through Singapore’s secondary forests, battling mosquitoes, feisty ants, and aggressive wildlife.
One memorable moment included a close encounter with a particularly aggressive Racket-tailed Drongo during his residency at Gillman Barracks between 2017 and 2018.
“It was as if it didn’t welcome you,” said Robert of the bird, which would swoop at him and snap its beak as he approached the nearby forest.
Robert also sometimes hears the ominous cracking sounds of falling branches from the large Albizia Mollucana trees, which can grow up to 40 metres tall.
Despite the challenges, and with the help of an umbrella to ward off angry birds, he managed to capture hundreds of hours of footage, which he painstakingly edited down to less than an hour of breathtaking highlights.
Image courtesy of Singapore Art Museum.
To Robert, however, this truly reflects the nature of the wild, where most of the time, there’s “a lot of nothing that’s happening”.
But luckily for his audience, only the most exciting moments are shown.
Visitors to the exhibition can also sneak a peek at Robert’s eclectic collection of artefacts accumulated over the years.
These include colonial-era postcards — which he candidly shared were sourced from e-Bay — layered beneath pressed weeds he collected from the forests.
The framed collages, along with other items such as ceramics and glass bottles, form part of the massive installation ‘Trash Stratum’.
‘Seeing Forest’ at SAM, while similar to the Venice edition, offers a new experience even to those who have seen the previous show.
Most distinctively, the exhibition space is about two times larger, says curator Haeju Kim, with a more immersive soundscape.
Compared to the three speakers used at the Venice Biennale, there are now nine speakers projecting sounds from the work ‘The Owl, The Travellers and The Cement Drain’.
Image courtesy of Singapore Art Museum.
These factors combined make for a more complex experience that make visitors feel they are stepping into the wild and discovering the hidden treasures that lie within.
The internationally acclaimed exhibition hopes to raise more awareness about nature in Singapore, while encouraging locals to pause and appreciate the hidden beauty of the natural world amidst the rush of urban life.
For those interested in experiencing the secret world of Singapore’s secondary forests, find out more here.
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Featured image courtesy of the artist and Singapore Art Museum.
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