• Issue
  • Feb 29, 2024

Robert Zhao Renhui: Seeing the Forest for the Trees

Portrait of ROBERT ZHAO RENHUI. Courtesy the artist. 

For the past seven years the interdisciplinary artist Robert Zhao Renhui has been investigating a number of secondary forests in his native Singapore—specifically, one nestled between expressways near his home, the other surrounding Gillman Barracks, a former colonial-era military site turned art precinct. And despite a conservationist friend warning him about the inferior biodiversity of secondary forests compared to primary ones, Zhao was resolute in allowing overlooked patches of greenery born from previously deforested land to reveal themselves through his work.