"Changes in Singapore’s natural and urban landscape over a 100-year period are chronicled in this project, which uses the artist’s characteristic blend of fact and fiction. Touching on issues of land reclamation, boundaries, ecological changes, pollution, conservation and the ever-evolving  skyline, the series is a shifting, open-ended meditation on the island’s past, present and future.

Several images deal with Singapore's relationship with sand. In the 1960s, Singapore gouged the soil from its hills and ridges and used it to reclaim land. Today, the island is virtually flat, forcing the government to buy sand from other countries. Large stockpiles of foreign sand and gravel are stored around Singapore, resulting in large man-made hills with a unique desert ecology.

Like in a dream, these phenomena are captured, amplified and distorted in Robert Zhao Renhui's pictures. Together, they form an imaginary topography where massive sand dunes brush up against public housing, a mysterious land mass grows out residential neighbourhoods, and strange, unidentified animals rest under shrubs. Familiar features of Singapore lifes are also given odd transpositions. In this brave new world, the ubiquitous stray dog has become a rare zoo exhibit (“Singapore Wild Dogs”), hinting at elements of eradication and control."    

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