Citizen

Robert Zhao Renhui’s interdisciplinary practice explores the complex relationship of humans and the natural world. In 2016, he spent a month photographing the great congregation of Javan Mynas that descend on the trees along Singapore's famous Orchard Road at dusk.

Citizen, (2016) is a portrait of a Javan Myna, a species introduced by the British in the 1920s. Its resilience and adaptability enabled it to out-compete its larger relative, the Common Myna, to become the most common bird in Singapore. While poaching and habitat loss have marked the Java Myna as a threatened species in its native Indonesia, the birds have surprisingly thrived in the urban landscape of Singapore. 

The work suggests parallels in the human world, as governments try to balance the complex issues of immigration and economic sustainability.