Open Reception, Open Scenes

Venue: INSTINC Space, 39 Keppel Rd, #03-10 Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore 089065

Opening Reception: 06 August 2025 (Wed.) 5:30PM–8:30PM

Exhibition Duration: 07 to 17 August 2025 (Wed-Fri, 1PM-7PM. Sat - Sun, 1PM-6PM)

Artist Talk: : 09 August 2025 (Sat.) 3:00PM-4:00PM at the venue

Here’s an equation: Object + Object + Object = Object assembly = Scene 

The shade of a yellow curtain bounces off a white cup's surface, turning its hue into a warm cream. Beneath the cup, its shadow creeps towards a roll of blue tape, its circular frame highlighting the silhouette of a shadow play cast by a nearby wind chime.

If an object is a singular noun, a one-dimensional adjective, or a faint presence, an assembly of things brings us into a fascinating world of visual syntaxes.

Open Scenes shares how Cally Tan, Lee Yueh Chen and Zhai Qiutong are charmed by objects and objecthoods. Each dealing with different materialities and approaches, their respective practices and artworks together illustrate a list of visual vocabularies that unpack the hard-to-describe allure of objects. Building on this vocabulary, from singular words to strung-together phrases, Open Scenes attempts to become a kind of playable visual dictionary, laced with example sentences, embodied as space.

Here, artworks are attached to mobility rigs that can be manipulated, letting viewers take the reins in forging changing relationships between artwork-objects. Distance, colour play, juxtaposition of shapes, and other visual cues become tools to curate scenes — some further obsoleting the presence of certain objects, while others pull them centre stage. In doing so, the exhibition paints temporal settings of objecthood as an ever-changing landscape, where peripheral objects are reconsidered as sites of potential meaning and invite new ways of seeing.

About Artists

Cally Tan

Cally (b.1998) is a textile-forward object-maker whose practice explores the representation of objecthood and potency in non-human matter. She believes that following these modes of being can inform alternative ways to navigate around personal scapes such as memory terrains or tangled emotions. Deeply inspired by experiences derived from object-making, specifically using textile materials and techniques, her works are often birthed from slow-accumulative fibres and echo both intimate and unfamiliar relationships between people and the everyday artefact.

Lee Yueh Chen

Lee Yueh Chen (b.1996, based in Taiwan) is a self-proclaimed colour maniac who depicts observed everyday objects through oil paints. Zooming in primarily on man-made and mass-produced objects, Lee uses his body as a transmitter of the senses to digest his attachment to these subject matters. He translates these interpretations by manipulating colours, shapes, expressions and other malleable elements in his oil paintings. Dedicated to locating the unique individuality of objects, Lee repeatedly destroys and reconstructs the painted surface. It is this oscillation between instinctual and conscious actions that forms the foundation of his practice and encapsulates the layered, nuanced sensibility he projects in his works. 

Zhai Qiutong

Zhai Qiutong (b.1999) is an artist and writer based in Singapore. Her interdisciplinary practice, often in the form of installation and writing, explores deep sensing towards natural phenomena. Her work contemplates the artist’s role in shaping relationships and observations that touch on the multiplicity of temporalities of the more-than-human and the subtle effects of ecology. Through speculative approaches, she seeks to mend the diverse connections between humans and both living and non-living beings, guided by a posthumanist understanding of time. She has collaborated with communities across islands, documenting oral histories of ancestral knowledge and creating spaces that nurture conversation and interconnectedness.

About INSTINC Space

Founded in 2004 by artist Yeo Shih Yun, INSTINC is a leading artist-run institution based in Singapore. With a distinguished presence in the arts ecosystem, INSTINC diligently sustains the growth of contemporary art through exhibitions, residency programs and curations. Their esteemed Artist-in-Residence program has cultivated invaluable regional and international networks since 2009. INSTINC is celebrated for producing immersive, large-scale exhibitions that encompass installation, new media, performance, painting and sculpture, showcasing the diverse range of artistic expressions. 

Notable collaborations include partnerships with renowned brands such as Volvo and Guinness, further demonstrating INSTINC's commitment to fostering cross-disciplinary exchanges. Moreover, INSTINC takes immense pride in organising the highly anticipated INSTINC D:Art Festival 2022, generously supported by UOB Bank and the NAC start fund.

INSTINC continues to foster creative individuals and collective practitioners by establishing a platform for cross-disciplinary exchanges with their relocation in Tanjong Pagar Distripark. With expertise in exhibition curation, commissioned works and brand alliances, INSTINC endeavours as a vital presence in the cultivation of contemporary art.