Robert Zhao 1
Details
Robert Zhao 1
Metadata (MODS) |
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|---|---|
| Titles | Robert Zhao 1: Clip 1 |
| Name | Robert Zhao |
| Name | Dr. Joanne Leow |
| Type of Resource | sound recording-nonmusical |
| Genre | Interview |
| Identifier | Interview |
| Identifier | Robert Zhao Clip 1 |
| Abstract | Robert Zhao recollects how he used to walk for hours on reclaimed land, when the new sand was unstable marsh land before it settled enough to develop. |
| Extent | 3:34 |
| Form | sound recording |
| Note | Robert Zhao: My name is Robert Zhao and I’m a visual artist based in Singapore, and I work with photography. My friend—who is a conservationist now—from my secondary school, he would go to Tanah Merah, which is a reclaimed land near—which is now Changi Naval Base. He would bring me to go there and we would walk from Tanah Merah Ferry until the end of the reclaimed land, and that was easily two hours, and it was very amazing for me because I’d never stepped—I mean, I stepped foot into reclaimed land before in Tuas where my father goes to fish—that was kind of my first experience. But to actively walk in so much sand, I immediately felt…and my friend was there because the sand created a lot of habitats. There are marshes, and attracted a lot of different birds to come to Singapore, and he even saw Himalayan vultures there. So, I was very interested in this site because it was very surreal. Subsequently in my diploma in visual comm., all my projects were of the landscape there simply because of the aesthetics. And then when I went to study my BA in Camberwell, BA in photography, that was when I started to think about the possibilities of reimagining the past or things that has not been photographed or has not been used with photographs, especially with the reclaimed land. I started to wonder, how come there just weren’t any images or memories of people in the landscape? Do we really have nothing besides ecological damage that the land has done? Does it have any connection with the people? Did people like me walk in the landscape feeling very surreal in the past? I’m sure there was, but was this documented in any way? So, when I found out that—perhaps because it was artificial dunes that nobody really cared so much for it, but when it’s natural dunes, like in Japan or Vietnam or in the States, or in France, it attracts a lot of attention. People visit the dune, they walk in the dune, and walk out, walk in and walk out. So, for me, I was doing the same thing in the same kind of landscape, but in Singapore, in a very highly artificial landscape. So, that’s when I appropriated all these images from the dunes I visit overseas into a dune here, and say that it was a dune here, and these are images from the ‘70s or ‘80s. A kind of imagery I felt was lacking in our discourse about the reclamation. And other ways to approach it besides a process, you know, because they’re huge, they’re huge land mass and it’s not a typical Singapore land mass. But it’s a huge land mass for me that has been constantly happening since the ‘60s. [2:46] Joanne Leow: And beyond that, actually, before that. Robert Zhao: And be—yeah, even when Raffles was here they started reclaiming. And I think it’s constant enough to be a feature. I think it’s only in the last ten years that restriction to that kind of land was stepped up, because seventeen years ago I could freely walk in and out. And it was towards, nearing ten years ago, then maybe we can sometimes get in, and then finally, now, they fence it off, I mean you can’t really go. I don’t know why, but I think maybe with social media and images being easier to… Joanne Leow: Transmit. [3:26] Robert Zhao: Yeah, transmit. It was just a good idea to not let people go in. Although, already there were very little people inside anyway. |
| Access Condition | Contact Dr. Joanne Leow |
| Subject Geographic | Pacific Ocean |
| Subject Hierarchical Geographic | Asia--Singapore------Singapore |
| 1990-2000 | |
| Subject Local Name | ----Coast--Landscape / Skyline--Land Reclamation--Pacific Ocean--1990-2000 |