This exhibition emerges from a week-long inquiry into the concept of service—a term that moves between emotional presence and institutional function.
On one hand, service reflects acts of care, support, and relational commitment, grounded in empathy and a desire to connect. It finds expression in caregiving professions, education, volunteerism, and other human-centred practices. These forms of service are shaped by affect—a felt, lived experience that affirms our shared humanity.
At the same time, service exists as part of wider infrastructures—bureaucratic, economic, and regulatory systems that define how care is administered, who receives it, and under what conditions. Here, service becomes an instrument of governance, tied to efficiency, access, and often, inequality.
This exhibition presents works that consider the layered nature of service across these registers. Rather than providing resolution, the artworks reflect the contradictions and complexities within the idea of service—as both an ethical gesture and a structured mechanism shaped by broader societal forces.
Works featured are by students of the Art Elective Programme from Hwa Chong Institution, Nanyang Junior College and National Junior College.
