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:
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Robert Zhao Renhui
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© » KADIST
Robert Zhao Renhui
2012Expedition #46 is a work from the series “The Glacier Study Group,” which consists of artists, scientists, activists, and enthusiasts of glacial and polar activity in the Artic Circle to conduct scientific investigation, data collection, and glacier sampling...
© » KADIST
Robert Zhao Renhui
2012Changi, Singapore, possibly 1970s is from the series “As We Walked on Water” (2010-2012), which looks into Singapore’s history around the phenomenon of land reclamation...
© » KADIST
Robert Zhao Renhui
2014Created during Zhao Renhui’s residency at Kadist SF in 2014, the photographic grid features a selection of some 6,000 members from single family of flies –hoverfly– identified over the last 25 years by Sacramento-based Dr...
© » KADIST
Robert Zhao Renhui
2016The photograph Proxy II (Beetles) by Robert Zhao Renhui belongs to a series, titled Christmas Island, Naturally, that focuses on the ecology of Christmas Island; a remote volcanic land formation in the Indian Ocean...
