Public Art

The Utopia of Rules

Kathleen Ditzig, Hera Chan

17 January 2025 to 26 January 2025

Free admission

Synopsis

Bureaucracy is a defining feature of contemporary life, embodying the social contracts and financialised logics that permeate our time, labor, relationships, and even the afterlife.

Borrowing its title from David Graeber’s 2015 book, this exhibition brings together artists from Singapore and beyond who have engaged with everyday bureaucracy and its idioms. Featuring artworks that are produced through international legal limits, that poetically reflect upon the personal cybernetic relationship with censorship, and that unpack the financialization of the office, public housing unit or mobile phone, The Utopia of Rules reflects upon the social contracts, agencies, and logics that define these everyday systems. In turn, the exhibition points to how in ‘following rules’ and ‘filing paperwork’, artists can speak to and shift cultural protocols.

The Utopia of Rules is curated by Hera Chan and Kathleen Ditzig, with design by Joshua Comaroff and Vanessa Ban.

Participating artists/curators:

Charles Lim, Heman Chong, Margaret Tan, Ho Rui An, Joanne Ng, Josh Kline, Wang Tuo, Arlette Quynh-Anh Tran, Serene Hui, Yong Xiang Li, C+G Apartments

Boedi Widjaja

15 Jan 2025 to 17 Feb 2025

Free admission

Boedi Widjaja’s collaborative art-science project engages deeply with cosmic ray muons, meditating on the invisible traces of distance, movement and borders in the spaces of encounter with the other.

Developed by Atelier HOKO, Commissioned by The Everyday Museum, a public art initiative by Singapore Art Museum

17 Jan 2025 to 27 Jan 2025

Free admission

A pop-up presentation exploring the role of instructional art in public spaces, advancing the dialogue on how we balance routine compliance with creative expression in daily interactions.

Funan and Vertical Submarine

17 Jan 2025 to 16 Feb 2025

Free admission

SNAKES & LADDERS: The Art Odyssey at Funan, curated by Justin Loke, gamifies the exhibition experience, blending Singaporean art, mythology, and ecology, featuring diverse artists and interactive installations.

Temporal Displacement Agency

17 Jan 2025 to 27 Jan 2025

Free admission

The National Antiquities Parade is an interactive installation where visitors can paint and restore newly unearthed clay figurines created by Mountbatten residents depicting the last National Day at the old Kallang National Stadium.