The Utopia of Rules exhibition explores bureaucratic systems through contemporary art at 72-13 Singapore

A group exhibition titled The Utopia of Rules ran from January 17 to 26, 2025 at 72-13 in Singapore, examining how bureaucratic systems control daily life while allowing for pockets of individual freedom. Inspired by David Graeber's 2015 book of the same name, the show features works by multiple artists addressing themes of administrative power, concealment, and creative resistance. Josh Kline presents an installation of grey-painted cardboard boxes filled with office supplies, evoking dreary workplace culture. Li Yong Xiang's folding screen with painted panels depicts toga-clad figures performing coded hand gestures, suggesting authority and secrecy through obscured identities. Joaen's batik painting captures anxiety and desperation within systemic constraints. Wang Tuo's three-channel video work explores censorship and artistic freedom through a conversation between an artist and government censor, previously shown in Hong Kong and Singapore but not in China. Charles Lim recontextualizes corporate documentation of undersea communications cables as chilling infrastructure records. Tisya Wong's installation features a reprogrammed robot vacuum creating charcoal patterns, demonstrating constrained creativity within mechanical systems. The exhibition positions art as a space for political expression and innovative negotiation of rules.