Narratives of the natural world

Fashioning stories about nature

Featured in

  • Published 20231107
  • ISBN: 978-1-922212-89-4
  • Extent: 208pp
  • Paperback, ePub, PDF, Kindle compatible

In the work of award-winning Singaporean artist Robert Zhao Renhui, fact and fiction have a complicated relationship. Renhui’s extensive and varied practice – which includes photography, video installation and even a fictitious research organisation called the Institute of Critical Zoologists – explores how knowledge and narrative shape the way we view the natural world and the non-human species we share it with. While his projects often engage with issues surrounding conservation and ecology, they also remind us of the mystery and magic inherent in the animal kingdom and the fallibility of our attempts to understand it.

CARODY CULVER: Tell me about how you came to be an artist. Were you always drawn to photography as an artistic medium?

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

About the author

Robert Zhao Renhui

Robert Zhao Renhui is a Singaporean artist whose work has been widely exhibited internationally. He has received several prizes, including the Deutsche Bank Award...

More from this edition

Where the wild things aren’t

Non-fictionMelbourne Zoo knows that it sits in an uneasy position as a conservationist advocate, still keeping animals in cages, and with an exploitative and cruel past. Our guides for the evening walked a practised line between acknowledging the zoo’s harmful history and championing its animal welfare programs, from the native endangered species they’re saving to their Marine Response Unit, a dedicated seaside taskforce just waiting for their sentimental action movie.

A new animal

Poetry My son has made friends with the daddy-long-legs under the kitchen bench. Each morning  I am freshly summoned to ‘um ook at em.’  Come look at him. The body: a dot  of...

Fish

FictionHe hasn’t caught one in twelve years or more, not since just before Ritchie – Hayley’s oldest – was born. The deboning alone can take half a morning and you have to strip that tail to its cartilage very carefully because there’s a layer of green resin, bitter. In small doses it ruins the meat; poisonous if you eat too much.

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.