Villa dei Fiori, September to November

2014 - Installation (Installation)

Robert Zhao Renhui


Created during Zhao Renhui’s residency at Kadist SF in 2014, Zhao Renhui began observing and cataloguing insects inspired by the scientific impulse towards exhaustive taxonomy of Sacramento-based Dr. Martin Hauser, Senior Insect Biosystematist at the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and longtime acquaintance of the artist. In Villa Dei Fiori, September to November, Zhao Renhui tracked and collected multiple insects within the everyday urban environment, either finding the insects dead or following them around for few days.


Robert Zhao Renhui’s multimedia practice questions fact-based presentations of ecological conservation and reveals the manner in which documentary, journalistic, and scientific reports sensationalize nature in order to elicit viewer sympathy. Zhao portrays humans as figures curious about their natural environment, which is at times mysterious and unpredictable. Through observing human behavior in front of animals, Zhao’s critical lens examines various modes and preconceived notions of what he calls a “zoological gaze”—the manner through which humans view animals and nature. This perspective challenges the dualistic separation between the human and the non-human worlds. Under the name of a fictional institution, The Institute of Critical Zoologists (ICZ), Zhao’s work creates visual ambiguities that destabilize assumptions about the ways in which images present facts, represent reality, and disseminate truths. Zhao was in residency at KADIST San Francisco in 2014.


Colors:



Related works sharing similar palette

Knight #6
© » KADIST

Karl Haendel

2011

Haendel’s series Knights (2011) is a set of impeccably drafted, nine-foot-tall pencil drawings depicting full suits of armor...

Body of Objects
© » KADIST

Dale Harding

2018

Dale Harding’s installation Body of Objects consists of eleven sculptural works that the artist based on imagery found at sandstone sites across Carnarvon Gorge in Central Queensland...

Mary Weatherford Revisits a 1957 ARTnews Profile of Painter Joan Mitchell
© » ARTNEWS RETROSPECTIVE

Mary Weatherford Revisits an ARTnews Profile of Joan Mitchell – ARTnews.com Skip to main content By Alex Greenberger Plus Icon Alex Greenberger Senior Editor, ARTnews View All September 4, 2020 10:27am ©ARTnews In 1957, art critic Irving Sandler paid a visit to the studio of painter Joan Mitchell , an Abstract Expressionist known for her brushy images capturing nature...

Vernissage : Amy Bravo — I’m Going There With You
© » SLASH PARIS

Amy Bravo — I’m Going There With You — Galerie Semiose — Exposition — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook Amy Bravo — I’m Going There With You — Galerie Semiose — Exposition — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour Précédent Suivant Amy Bravo — I’m Going There With You Exposition Installations, peinture, sculpture, techniques mixtes À venir Amy Bravo, Elegy to the Mustache, 2024 Graphite, pastel, acrylique sur toile, miroir, plâtre et objets trouvés — 137 × 91,5 × 2,5 cm Courtesy Semiose, Paris Amy Bravo I’m Going There With You Dans environ un mois : 16 mars → 27 avril 2024 La encrucijada / la croisée des chemins « Un poulet est sacrifié à une croisée de chemins, un simple monticule de terre un autel en terre pour Eshu, dieu Yoruba de l’indétermination, qui bénit le choix de chemin qu’elle a fait...

Wateoma husipe / Larvas de oruga / Caterpillar larvae
© » KADIST

Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe

2019

Wateoma husipe / Larvas de oruga / Caterpillar larvae by Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe exemplify his most abstract work, where he choses particular elements of a living organism to create his renditions...

silentstar, delicacy
© » KADIST

Duane Linklater

2020

silentstar, delicacy by Duane Linklater is a replica of a baby pink hoodie that the artist wore as a teenager, embellished with hand-painted elements and band patches...

Opening : Amy Bravo — I’m Going There With You
© » SLASH PARIS

Amy Bravo — I’m Going There With You — Semiose Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Amy Bravo — I’m Going There With You — Semiose Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Previous Next Amy Bravo — I’m Going There With You Exhibition Installation, painting, sculpture, mixed media Upcoming Amy Bravo, Elegy to the Mustache, 2024 Graphite, wax pastel, acrylic on canvas, found objects, mirror and plaster — 54 × 36 × 1 in...

Ballerina
© » KADIST

Liu Yin

2010

Liu Yin brings the tension of a small but imminent catastrophe into the gallery with a raw egg balanced on the edge of a folding table....

Be Oblivion, in Disconnect
© » KADIST

Natasha Wheat

2011

Wheat’s work is built on a strong conceptual framework that weaves together commentary on social and political issues and the radical potential for change...

Study from May Day March, Los Angeles 2010 (Immigration Reform Now) and We Are Immigrants Not Terrorists
© » KADIST

Andrea Bowers

2010

The small drawings that comprise Study from May Day March, Los Angeles 2010 (Immigration Reform Now) and We Are Immigrants Not Terrorists are based on photographs taken at a political rally in downtown Los Angeles in which thousands of individuals demonstrated for immigrants’ rights...

Yu-Wen Wu Interviewed by Yutong Shi
© » BOMB

BOMB Magazine | Yu-Wen Wu Interviewed Necessary (Required) Cookies that the site cannot function properly without...

Metaphors of the presence or conversations at the speed of light
© » KADIST

Nicolás Paris

2012

Nicolas Paris studied architecture and worked as an elementary school teacher before he decided to become an artist...

Sin Título (T4)
© » KADIST

Maria Fernanda Plata

2015

Unraveling, or “unweaving” sections of fabric, Maria Fernanda Plata arrived at delicate and tenuous-looking forms, both ghostly and gentle...

Primero Estaba el Mar
© » KADIST

Felipe Arturo

2012

Primero estaba el mar ( First Was the Sea , 2012) is a system of equivalences between syllables and silhouettes of waveforms cast in cement...

Studies of Chinese New Villages II
© » KADIST

Gan Chin Lee

2019

In Studies of Chinese New Villages II Gan Chin Lee’s realism appears in the format of a fieldwork notebook; capturing present-day surroundings while unpacking their historical memory...

22022021, Yawnghwe Office in Exile
© » KADIST

Sawangwongse Yawnghwe

2021

22022021, Yawnghwe Office in Exile by Sawangwongse Yawnghwe belongs to a body of work made in response to the Myanmar military coup that began in February 2021...

Pop (blue time)
© » KADIST

Saâdane Afif

2005

Blue time is a song co-written by artists Saâdane Afif and Lili Reynaud Dewar...

Black Hands, White Cotton
© » KADIST

Hank Willis Thomas

2014

Shot in black and white and printed on a glittery carborundum surface, Black Hands, White Cotton both confronts and abstracts the subject of its title...

Power Forward
© » KADIST

Power Forward Wednesday, January 24, 2018 Bar 6pm, Program 7pm Ezekiel Kweku & Ameer Lo ggins in conversation, moderated by Sarah Hotchkiss Editors Astria Suparak & Brett Kashmere in person To celebrate the launch of Sports , the newest issue of artist-run publication INCITE: Journal of Experimental Media , KADIST hosts an evening of athletics, politics, art, and dialogue...