New Forest
New Forest
by Robert Zhao
Designed by H55 in Singapore
Published in 2020 by Robert Zhao Renhui
Edition of 1000
72 pages, 48 images. Hard Cover.
14.5cm x 20.1cm x 1.5cm (Thick)
ISBN: 978-981-09-8310-9
New Forest is a new series of books looking at secondary tropical forest ecologies and histories. It is published by The Institute of Critical Zoologists.
The first volume is dedicated to the last cow in Singapore, which died in 2016.
The book contains images of the cow just before it passed away.
In 1935, a herd of feral cattle was spotted roaming Singapore. Since then, alleged sightings have been rare. Reports came mainly from Japanese soldiers in World War II and occasionally from local residents. If these reports are true, these cows were confined to the areas of Tampines, Punggol, Sembawang and Pulau Ubin. In 2016, a cow was discovered on Coney Island but died shortly after.
Some believe that wild cows still roam Singapore.
Conceived by The Institute of Critical Zoologists (ICZ) between 2014 and 2019, this book features images of cows in Singapore from the 1890s to 2016 from ICZ's archive.
ROBERT ZHAO RENHUI
Robert Zhao Renhui is constantly fascinated with Singaporeans’ controlled coexistence with nature, and his practice is drawn from observations and research inspired by his genuine curiosity about how man interacts with the natural world. He creates photos with a documentary approach, constructing and layering the subject with narratives that cross the boundary between the real and the fictional, creating doubt in the viewer about the image’s authenticity. Robert’s work raises questions about both our fascination with controlling nature and how our reception of a photograph can be manipulated by its presentation. Robert graduated with a Masters (with Distinction) in Photography, Graduate Scholarship Programme from the London College of Communication, London, United Kingdom in 2010 and a BA in Photography from the Camberwell College of the Arts, University of the Arts, London, United Kingdom. Some of his selected solo exhibitions include Final Report of the Christmas Island Expert Working Group, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, Singapore (2018), Christmas Island, Naturally, ShanghART M50, Shanghai, China (2017), Singapore, Very Old Tree, National Museum of Singapore, Singapore (2017), A Guide to the Flora and Fauna of the World, Centre of Contemporary, Photography, Melbourne, Australia (2015), and Flies Prefer Yellow, Kadist Art Foundaton, San Francisco, California, USA (2014) amongst many others. He has also participated in group exhibitions extensively both locally and internationally such as Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, South Korea, France, Russia, China, Hong Kong, Poland, United States, Australia, Brazil, United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Albania. His works are in the collection of the National Museum of Singapore, Singapore, UBS Art Collection, UBS Global, Statoil Art Collection, Stavanger, Norway, Kadist Art Foundaton, San Francisco, USA UOB Art Collecton, Singapore, and Singapore Art Museum, Singapore. Robert lives and works in Singapore.
