In the work of award-winning Singaporean artist Robert Zhao Renhui, fact and fiction have a complicated relationship. Renhui’s extensive and varied practice – which includes photography, video installation and even a fictitious research organisation called the Institute of Critical Zoologists – explores how knowledge and narrative shape the way we view the natural world and the non-human species we share it with. While his projects often engage with issues surrounding conservation and ecology, they also remind us of the mystery and magic inherent in the animal kingdom and the fallibility of our attempts to understand it.

CARODY CULVER: Tell me about how you came to be an artist. Were you always drawn to photography as an artistic medium?