Posthuman Ensemble

Robert Zhao RENHUI

1983/Singapore

〈A Monument to Thresholds〉, 2020.

Single Channel Video Projection, Digital
UV Prints, Found Objects, Dimensions Variable

* Video
'We Watch Them Dissappear’ Commissioned by the Yalu River Art Museum, 2019/Concept: Robert Zhao / Music: George Chua / Science: Yong Ding Li

Robert Zhao Renhui’s work discusses humanity’s relationship with nature, specifically regarding the extinction and decline of species like passenger pigeons, great auks, godwits, and zebra mussels. Passenger pigeons, whose numbers were thought to reach nearly 3~5 million in the past, were deemed extinct on September 1, 1914, following widespread deforestation. The efforts of early museums and collectors to preserve the great auks, whose
numbers dwindled from being hunted, ended up contributing to their decline. Similarly, humans used 114 t of clams to feed migratory birds that travel between Australia and Siberia. However, the cold winter resulted in the decline of clams and, consequently, migratory birds because of the lack of food. Zebra mussels have spread worldwide in container ships and are now considered an invasive species that can damage infrastructure. Renhui’s work collects these intertwined relationships through
documentaries and fiction, and “his works embrace a multitudinal perspective on the world” that invites us to explore the “spaces
between invasives and natives, foreign and local, life and death.”