pianist in the zoo » About Zhao Renhui

About Zhao Renhui

Zhao Renhui is a Singaporean artist. His practice investigates the different modes of knowledge production in photographic archives and documents. In 2007, he was awarded a research grant by the Chelsea Arts Club in London for his photographic research work in Spain. He has also won several awards for his photography work including the AOP Student Photographer Of The Year award in 2007 (UK) and the Emerging Artist Award (Singapore International Photography Festival 2008). His research work on different animal traps from around the world was selected as the winning project for the Sotiri International Prize for Emerging photographers (2009). At the moment, he is working closely with the Institute of Critical Zoologists on a series of public exhibitions, presentations and installations. The artist and the Institute recently exhibited and received a special mention of their research in the inaugural Photo-Levallois in France, “We decided to go to the zoo but it was raining” and the ‘Ark Project’ at Pickford House Museum in the United Kingdom during the Format Photography Festival. His documentary work on intense tiger farming in China was also shown in Chobi Mela V Festival, Bangladesh.

Most recently, the artist presented a major multi-disciplinary project with The Substation, “If a tree falls in the forest” with the support of The National Arts Council Singapore and the Lee foundation. He was also selected to present his research work on animal memorabilia in the recent Asia-Europe Foundation Emerging Photographer’s Forum. A series of his work, “The Blind” was also selected to be the cover and feature of “Portfolio” catalogue, a critical contemporary photography publication in Britain.

“His work challenges how we observe nature and notions of truth and objectivity in both science and photography.” Gloria Chalmers, Editor, Portfolio Magazine Britain

Paul Tebbs, Portfolio magazine Britain, “As an artwork, ICZ is to science what Walid Raad’s excellent ‘Atlas Group’ is to the writing of recent political history: absurdist but plausible, poignant and playfully political. And it’s a critique that cuts at least two ways: art lightly mocking the scientific calibration of animal and human difference but performed knowingly within a culture of art production and art education that increasingly adopts scientific language and behaviours to determine its status as a mode of research. ICZ operates on fertile ground.”

Weng Choy, The Substation, Singapore, if a tree falls in the forest catalog, “The work at The Institute of Critical Zoologists, to me at any rate, seems to have a proper recognition of how science and art, at their very core, both share similar attitudes toward the world — one of wonder, of exploration and experimentation, and of questioning and challenging knowledge.”

http://www.epson.co.uk/news_events/press_releases/details/student_photographer zhaorenhui.com

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http://culturepush.com/2008/11/05/spotted-zhao-renhui/

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http://www.formatfestival.com/exposure/pickfords-house/renhui-zhao

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http://www.portfoliocatalogue.com/49/index.php