ROBERT ZHAO RENHUI

Zhao Renhui's practice investigates the different modes of the human zoological gaze and the socio-political construction of the idea of nature. In 2008, he founded The Institute for Critical Zoologists (ICZ), a creative scientific and pluri-disciplinary platform that approaches critically the fiels of natural science and zoology. Mixing openly fiction and reality, Zhao creates most of his artworks under this umbrella.

For the exhibition, Zhao Renhui investigated the wild species of cocoa tree introduced during the colonial times in Singapore during the 19th century, which now stand abandoned. His series of black and white photographs untitled The Last Wild Cocoa and its inhabitants(2023)represents the decay of the pods, juxtaposed with images of tiny midges that continue to pollinate the seeds and, eventually, are responsible for the survival of the trees on the island.