How Singapore artist Robert Zhao Renhui brought Bukit Panjang’s forests to the Venice Biennale

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.