Singapore - A Growing Nation

By Robert Zhao Renhu

Singapore | No dialogue | 2022 | 12 min 16 sec | Rating TBA

World premiere

Fog rises and churns over a disused quarry. In a cleared forest, a wild boar stands and stares. Mynas follow in the wake of grass mowers, opportunistic and hungry.

In the mostly urban city-state of Singapore, nature flourishes in pockets, but its growth is also curtailed in a process of continuous and conscientious human labour. As such, any natural growth here runs up against opposing forces of control, but also finds gaps for free expression. Against this reality, Singapore—A Growing Nation explores the complex and contradictory interplay between nature and urbanity, non-human and human, allowing for a sense of openness and radical mystery to be revealed in the everyday.

The film is a response to Chua Mia Tee: Directing the Real, Chua’s solo exhibition that focuses on the works that he made between the 1950s to 1980s. The work addresses Chua’s documentation of the industrialisation and urbanisation of modern, post-independence Singapore (especially its people and infrastructure), by providing a missing perspective on Singapore’s development seen from beyond the human lens.

Artworks by Chua Mia Tee referenced in the film include Benjamin Sheares Bridge—The Viaduct (1981), Road Construction Worker (1955), and Workers in a Canteen (1974).

Chua Mia Tee. Benjamin Sheares Bridge – The Viaduct. 1981. Oil on canvas, 120.4 x 242.5 cm. Gift of the artist. Collection of National Gallery Singapore. Image courtesy of National Heritage Board, Singapore. © Chua Mia Tee and family.

Chua Mia Tee. Road Construction Worker. 1955. Oil on canvas, 86 x 66 cm. Collection of National Gallery Singapore. This work has been adopted by Seah and Siak. Image courtesy of National Heritage Board, Singapore. © Chua Mia Tee and family.

Chua Mia Tee. Workers in a Canteen. 1974. Oil on canvas, 88.5 x 126.5 cm. Gift of the artist. Collection of National Gallery Singapore. Image courtesy of National Heritage Board, Singapore. © Chua Mia Tee and family.

Robert Zhao Renhui (b. 1983, Singapore) is a multi-disciplinary artist and the founder of the Institute of Critical Zoologists (ICZ). His practice addresses humanity’s relationship with nature, and is characterised by a longstanding interest in investigating sites defined by the conflation of wilderness and urbanisation. Zhao’s research-oriented processes often culminate in publications, exhibitions and videos. His work has been exhibited in Chengdu Biennale 2021; Busan Biennale 2020; Singapore Biennale 2019; Asia Pacific Triennial, Queensland, Australia, 2018; Jiwa: Jakarta Biennale, Indonesia, 2017; 7th Moscow Biennale, Russia, 2017; 20th Sydney Biennale, Australia 2016; Les Recontres d’Arles, France, 2015.

Artist Robert Zhao Renhui will be in conversation with an exhibition curator on Saturday 23 July and Sunday 24 July, at 7.30pm, in the exhibition space. Registration is required.

As part of this programme, there will also be free curator tours of the Chua Mia Tee: Directing the Real exhibition on Sunday 24 July, at 11am and 12pm. Please click ‘BOOK TOUR’ to register.

Recommended
Films

Singapore - A Growing Nation

Singapore—A Growing Nation

Social Realist Turns in Singapore Filmmaking (1950s–1980s) - Day One

Social Realist Turns in Singapore Filmmaking (1950s–1980s)—Day Two