The Owl, The Travellers, and The Cement Drain

Directed by Robert Zhao Renhui

This two-channel video features footage collected over a long period, including moments captured during the artist's forest visits, from his apartment on the 26th floor via a zoom lens, and from motion-capturing and body temperature cameras that he installed in the forest. This secondary forest is a place where natural and man-made elements interact, introduced and native species coexist, and past and present intertwine. Abandoned tents languish under the trees. Animals and migratory birds rest on a trash bin and a broken concrete drain. Remnants of military facilities from the British colonial era and the Japanese occupation, as well as items left behind by migrant workers are scattered and buried in the forest. Layered onto this landscape is the unfathomable narrative of two travellers passing through the forest, who speak of things seen in the forest and things the forest sees.