This video brings together footage of secondary forests in Singapore that has been collected over almost a decade. This includes moments captured during the artist's visits to the forest, from his apartment on the 26th floor using a zoom lens, as well as motion-capture and thermal cameras he had installed in the forest.

This secondary forest is a place where natural and man-made elements interact, introduced and native species coexist, and past and present intertwine. Abandoned tents languish under the trees. Animals and migratory birds rest on a trash bin and a broken concrete drain. Remnants of military facilities from the British colonial era and the Japanese occupation, as well as items left behind by migrant workers, are scattered and buried in the forest. Layered onto this landscape is the unfathomable narrative of two travellers passing through the forest, who speak of things seen in the forest and the things the forest sees.

The two screens of the artwork are also deliberately juxtaposed to highlight the contrast and interaction between the natural world and events caused by human intervention. Through this, the artist prompts us to reimagine these forests—which are continually shaped and erased by urban expansion—as a mutable space of possibility where the boundaries between human and nonhuman, and native and foreign are dismantled.

The central structure of the exhibition is a crumbling cabinet made of stacked wooden boxes. It harkens back to cabinets of curiosities, while also challenging the colonial approaches to collection and categorisation associated with it. Within this structure, 15 screens display various creatures visiting a watering hole created by a dustbin left behind by a migrant worker who resided in the forest. Also featured are close-up photographs of objects from the forest that the artist had collected.

These images are interspersed with various archival photographs and objects taken from the forest. Collected during the artist's research, these objects were either found at the bottom of a river after the rain or discovered entangled within the exposed roots of trees that had fallen after strong winds. They are a testament to how the forest preserves human history while continuing to grow alongside it.

Together, the footage and objects speak to transformations over time within a place and the endless reconstitution of the forest. By destabilising colonial narratives of control over nature, Trash Stratum imagines more fluid relationships between the human and the nonhuman, reminding us of our entangled existences.

The Buffy Fish Owl is a bird native to Southeast Asia. Known to inhabit well-wooded parks and nature reserves, this owl was observed drinking water from a cracked cement drain in Gillman Barracks. The image of the bird, with its back turned to us, evokes the enigmatic aphorism by Greek philosopher Heraclitus: "Nature loves to hide." The artwork references how nature has an inherent tendency to conceal its truths, alluding to the idea that the true essence of things is not easily grasped or understood.

This imaginary forest map presents an overview of the artist's extensive explorations and research in Singapore's secondary forests—forests that have sprung up after the destruction of primary vegetation. Such forests are often inhabited by both native and foreign species that interact to create new ecosystems. Reflecting the rich ecology of the secondary forests, especially those near his home in Bukit Panjang and the forgotten Queen’s Own Hill area (today Gillman Barracks), the map incorporates symbolic stations and features that Zhao encountered on his frequent walks and captured with motion sensor cameras over an extended period.

Notable natural and man-made elements depicted include Albizia trees—an introduced species initially planted due to its rapid growth—that quickly naturalised in Singapore’s secondary forests, and a shattered concrete drain from the British colonial period, which concealed a river that is vital to the forest ecosystem.

An exclusive t-shirt featuring the artwork Grown from Yesterday (2024) by artist Robert Zhao Renhui. Made of 100% cotton.

Measurements:

Size 1
• Length: 70cm
• Width: 52cm
• Shoulder width: 47cm
• Sleeve length: 20cm

Size 2
• Length: 78cm
• Width: 58cm
• Shoulder width: 53cm
• Sleeve length: 24cm

An exclusive pin featuring Robert Zhao Renhui’s Buffy (2024), the icon of Seeing Forest.