Born in 1979 in Singapore, Robert Zhao Renhui was awarded a research grant by the Chelsea Arts Club in London, for his photographic research work in Spain in 2007. He has won awards, including the AOP Student Photographer Of The Year award, 2007; Emerging Artist Award (Singapore International Photography Festival), 2008; UOB Painting of the Year Award, 2009 (Singapore), and Sotiri International Prize for Emerging Photographers, 2009. A fascination with animals led him to visit over 50 zoos and natural history museums in 10 years and to create the ficticious Institute of Critical Zoologists to explore the relationship between humans and animals.‘The Blind- Tottori Sand Dunes’ is based on actual recent development of composite materials, which have the ability to curve electromagnetic light waves, potentially facilitating the invention of “invisibility cloaks”. In the photographs, human subjects drape themselves with this futuristic invention, ostensibly for field research that borders on voyeurism, in the natural animal habitats of forests and grasslands. In the process, the artist also questions the concept of “truth” and “objectivity” through the stories he presents to the viewer via the manipulated imagery he has created using the medium of photography.
