President’s Young Talents 2013

For the exhibition of President's Young Talents 2013, Robert Zhao presents a newly commissioned series of work "The Quieting and the Alarming."

This project looks at the current status of the wild boar situation in Singapore. Without a natural predator, the population of wild boars here has exploded in the last few years. Wild boars are known to cause severe damage to the forest floor and the damage is very visible today in our central catchment nature reserves. The government has started to cull wild boars (one of the first to be culled was in June 2012 when a rogue boar attacked a boy) but this move was met with resistance from animal interest groups. Much of the debate hinged on ethical questions and the fear of upsetting a natural balance we did not yet fully understand.

This installation explores the different perspectives through which we observe nature, as well as the sense of uncertainty people feel about our interactions with nature. The concept of wilderness and nature in Singapore is defined by various systems of control - the media, official bodies, academia and animal rights lobbyists.

Installation view, The Quieting and the Alarming