In 2014, I spent a few nights under one of the Banyan trees at the back of The Substation for a project. A few months later, all the trees there were chopped to make way for a new building, except for the largest one, which was uprooted and kept somewhere till it finds a new home. During the demolition, I salvaged some of the tree trucks and kept them, not really knowing what I would do with them.

A year later, I found that the trunks were mostly intact, and there were little insects and plants growing in them. Only one of the segments was reduced to an ashy powder by powderpost beetles.

I started thinking about the idea of disappearance in nature, and how long, without intervention, a tree takes to disappear. As an experiment, I started sanding all the wood down manually to see how long I can reduce it to dust.

It took me nine months.

Meanwhile, I know that the large Banyan tree will be transplanted in a few years time. It takes forever for a tree to disappear in the forest, but in Singapore, we can grow a 30-metre tree in just a few days. It is almost a miracle.

Slow disappearances and instant trees: Time is warped in the tree world in Singapore.

- Robert Zhao Renhui, incollaboration with The Substation for Septfest

 

http://www.substation.org/septfest/

Review http://www.todayonline.com/entertainment/arts/septfest-2015-robert-zhao-takes-substations-famous-banyan-tree

 

Works in Exhibition

 

 

How To Make A Tree Disappear As Nature Intended I (2015)

4.25m x 0.6m x 1.55m

Vitrine, Substation banyan tree root, powderpost beetles, powder

The artist salvaged this long root from the Substation Banyan tree that was taken away to be transplanted. The inside of this branch is slowly being eaten by the larva of powderpost beetles, which spend months or years inside reducing the wood to fine powder. Their presence is only apparent when they emerge as adults, leaving behind pinhole-sized openings, often called "shot holes". If conditions are right, female beetles may lay their eggs and re-infest the wood, continuing the cycle for generations, and reducing the wood to a pile of dust.

 

Detail of 'shothole' by powderpost beetles, How To Make A Tree Disappear As Nature Intended I (2015)

Detail of 'powder' in vitrine falling from branch by powderpost beetles, How To Make A Tree Disappear As Nature Intended I (2015)

 

 

 

How To Make A Tree Disappear As Nature Intended II (2015)

2mx2mx1.55m

Vitrine, 150kg of sawdust from the Substation Malayan Banyan tree.

The artist spent nine months sanding down each piece of trunk manually with sand paper. This pile of sawdust came from 200kg of wood.

 

The artist sanding down the trunks for How To Make A Tree Disappear As Nature Intended II (2015)

 

 

 

A Guide To Tree Planting (2015)

Set of framed book pages in sequence from left to right, 45cm x 35.5cm each

In Singapore, trees can be brought back to their usual adult sizes instantaneously. The book shows the miraculous planting and construction of a 30-metre tree in a day.

 

Kallang, Singapore (1912) from A Guide to Tree Planting, (2015)

 

from A Guide to Tree Planting, (2015)

from A Guide to Tree Planting, (2015)

 

 

 

Installation View

 

 

The Substation Banyan Tree awaiting translantation.(2014)

210cm x 140cm, Lightbox