Open Assignment
Quek Jia Qi and Aaron Lim
Group Exhibition
28 Jun - 6 Jul 2025, 11am - 7pm (daily)
Open Assignment is a participatory art exhibition that unfolds as a site of inquiry, learning, and becoming. Distilling the assignment as the starting point, the prompt as the practice, and the framework as the work in becoming, it invites us to consider the assignment not as directive, but as an artistic practice. Each assignment holds within it the potential for discovery, interpretation, and transformation. Visitors are invited into an evolving process where meaning is not given, but generated—through acts of making, unmaking, and reimagining. This participatory exhibition approaches the assignment with quiet curiosity. Drawing from pedagogical methodologies and participatory art practices, visitors are invited to create and respond, opening up unexpected ways of sensing, relating, and thinking together. Here, the assignment becomes a container for thought, a score for doing, a shared surface for inquiry. At its core, Open Assignment is both a physical installation and a conceptual tool—foregrounding process over product and reframing the exhibition as a collective pedagogical encounter. In doing so, it asks: How might we learn differently? And in turn, live differently?
With special appreciation to all contributing participants whose generosity, creativity, and curiosity animate this collective work-in-progress. Contribute your assignment or response at openassignment.xyz
About the Artist(s)
Quek Jia Qi
Quek Jia Qi is an artist and educator whose socially engaged practice bridges community and learning through storytelling. Working at the intersection of art and pedagogy, she collaborates with people across disciplines and walks of life. Her work unfolds through site-specific installations, public programmes, and performances that create space for connection and dialogue—inviting new ways of learning, relating, and being together. A recipient of the Social Art Award in 2017, Jia Qi has exhibited her work internationally across the US, UK, Europe, and Asia, including at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) Singapore, Raven Row and 5th Base Gallery in London, Whiteconcepts Gallery in Berlin, Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (CICA) Museum in South Korea, and Framer Framed in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Her work has also been presented at public festivals such as the Singapore Night Festival and Singapore Archifest, and in public spaces across Singapore, London, and New York. Grounded in reciprocity, care, and curiosity, her practice explores how art can be offered as a gift—expanding modes of exchange and nurturing meaningful relationships.
www.quekjiaqi.com
Aaron Lim
Aaron Lim is a spatial designer whose practice embraces cross-disciplinary and collaborative modes of making. He is interested in developing participatory methodologies that foster spatial agency and support the collective shaping of spaces and ideas. Centered around playfulness, his approach invites participants to engage with his work through childlike wonder and curiosity, encouraging reflection on their routines through the subversion of everyday objects and rituals. His works have been featured across a wide range of public spaces and festivals, including the Singapore Night Festival, Singapore Heritage Festival, and the London Festival of Architecture. He has exhibited at institutions such as the National Library, National Design Centre, Grey Projects, and the Urban Redevelopment Authority. His participatory and site-responsive works have been part of community-driven initiatives such as Singapore Parking Day, Noise Singapore, and the Singapore Coffee Festival.
https://aaronlimsy.wixstudio.com/aaronlimsy