Living with the unlikes | A Webinar with Goh Sze Ying, Dr Edwin Jurriëns and Robert Zhao
Wed 28 May 2025, 7 – 8.30 pm SGT ( 12 – 1.30 pm BST, 9 – 10.30 pm AEST)
Online Webinar | Free, registration required:
https://bit.ly/ArtEnvWebinar
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Conversations around ecology often foreground human impact—but our environment, too, responds to human activity and, in turn, reshapes our societies, politics and ways of life.
Presented as part of the “Online Courses on Southeast Asian Art: Art and the Environment” series, this webinar invites us to consider the environment not just as a backdrop against which human activities take place, but as an active agent in Southeast Asia’s artistic and cultural landscapes.
The session brings together art historian Dr. Edwin Jurriëns and artist Robert Zhao for a discussion moderated by curator Goh Sze Ying. Jurriëns will provide a broader perspective on art activism in the region, drawing from his research into how Indonesian artists confront environmental crises through socially engaged practice. Zhao, who recently represented Singapore at the 2024 Venice Biennale, will reflect on human-nature coexistence, using his practice to reframe nature as a site of memory, fiction and political urgency.
Together, they will explore the complexities of living alongside the “unlikes”—from non-human beings to shifting ecologies—and how art both responds to and shapes our understanding of environmental issues across Southeast Asia.
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About the Speakers
Edwin Jurriëns is Convenor and Associate Professor of Indonesian Studies at the Asia Institute, Faculty of Arts, The University of Melbourne. His main research interests lie in environmental and socially engaged art and media. His publications include the monographs “The Art of Environmental Activism in Indonesia: Shifting Horizons” (Routledge, 2023) and “Visual Media in Indonesia: Video Vanguard” (Routledge, 2017), as well as the edited volume “Digital Indonesia: Connectivity and Divergence” (ISEAS, 2017).
He is editor of the “Asian Visual Cultures” book series published by Amsterdam University Press and regional editor of “The Newsletter” of the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS). He has had fellowships with the Institute for Area Studies at Leiden University, Monash Art, Design and Architecture at Monash University in Melbourne, The Graduate Institute in Geneva, The University of New South Wales in Canberra and IIAS in Leiden. He was co-convenor of the 2016 Indonesia Update of the Australian National University in Canberra.
Robert Zhao Renhui is a multi-disciplinary artist and the founder of the Institute of Critical Zoologists. His artistic practice addresses the human relationship with nature. Zhao received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Photography from Camberwell College of Arts and London College of Communication respectively. His work has been exhibited in international group shows such as Busan Biennale 2020; Singapore Biennale 2019; Asia Pacific Triennial, Queensland, Australia, 2018; Jiwa: Jakarta Biennale, Indonesia, 2017; 7th Moscow Biennale, Russia, 2017; 20th Sydney Biennale, Australia, 2016; Les Recontres d’Arles, France, 2015. Amongst his more recent solo exhibitions in Singapore are The Nature Museum, commissioned by Singapore International Festival of Art (SIFA) and The Bizarre Honour, realised for OH! Open House, both in 2017. Zhao has undertaken residencies at the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France, Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco, United States, and the Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan. He was awarded the Young Artist Award by the National Arts Council in 2010 and was a finalist of the Hugo Boss Asia Art Award 2017.
Goh Sze Ying is Curator at National Gallery Singapore, where she contributes to the UOB Southeast Asia Gallery long-term exhibition, “Between Declarations and Dreams: Art of Southeast Asia since the 19th century”. More recently, she worked on exhibitions including “Living Pictures: Photography in Southeast Asia” (2022), “Ever Present: First Peoples Art of Australia” (2022), “Something New Must Turn Up” (2020), “Minimalism: Space. Light. Object.” (2018) and “Lim Cheng Hoe: Painting Singapore” (2018). In 2019, she co-curated the sixth edition of the Singapore Biennale, “Every Step in the Right Direction”.
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About Online Courses on Southeast Asian Art
Developed by National Gallery Singapore, “Online Courses on Southeast Asian Art” introduces audiences to the richness of art from the region. At your own pace, journey with artists, curators and researchers through insightful videos, short readings and resources. We also invite you to exchange ideas with our global community of curious learners.
Start your learning now:
https://www.nationalgallery.sg/sg/en/learn-about-art/online-art-courses.html
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