QUEK JIA QI
  • ABOUT
  • WORK
    • PUBLIC ART >
      • A Living Museum for Bukit Gombak
      • First Flight
      • Can You Hear Me?
      • Kuti Kuti?
      • The Treehouse We Never Had
      • Waiting For
      • What do you not handle with care?
      • Shifting Concretes: Can We “Lepak” Better at Orchard Road?
      • 洗手 (Washing Hands)
    • INTERACTIVE INSTALLATIONS >
      • First Flight
      • Stretch
      • Bind
      • Untitled (lost and maybe not always found)
      • Tree of Curiosities
      • Real-Doh Playroom
      • Real-Doh: Fun with Apologies
      • Real-Doh: Model Citizen
      • Real-Doh: Together, We Can Even This Out
      • 佳佳 Mama Shop
      • Fix-Aided
    • COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT >
      • The Art of Family Time
      • Mapping with Sounds
      • A Picnic In Apart
      • Field Trip to Redhill
      • Kopi & Myths
      • Goodnight Stranger
      • Your Familiar Stranger
    • COLLABORATIONS >
      • Conversations in Singapore History' 18
      • Oceans*A*Part
      • Dumplings & Dialogue
      • And Everything In Between
      • The Little Things Book
    • PERFORMANCES >
      • Is this seat taken?
      • Ghost to Ourselves
      • All The Things I Had To Say To You (Without You)
      • Grieving in New York City
      • Love Clinic
  • PRESS
  • CONTACT

Archive

Her socially-engaged practice investigates how relational and transformative learning can emerge through experimental forms of storytelling. Working at the intersection of Art and Pedagogy, she works collaboratively to explore how modalities of exchange can bring individuals and communities together to foster greater civic engagement.

Previously based in London, and now in Singapore, she works in the ever-expanding field of social practice, having led and facilitated participatory workshops, site-specific installations, public programmes, and performances across the US, UK, Europe and Asia. Her work has been presented at the Singapore Archifest; Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore; CICA Museum, South Korea; Whiteconcepts Gallery, Berlin; Framer Framed, Amsterdam; Raven Row, London; The Yard Theatre, London; King’s College London; Goldsmiths, University of London; 5th Base Gallery, London; amongst others in the public streets of London, Singapore and New York City. She has also worked with Asia-Art-Activism research network, The Substation, and Serpentine Education & Projects, at Serpentine Galleries to facilitate and evaluate community-centred public programmes to define the role of arts in times of transition and social change.
 In 2017, Jia Qi was awarded the Social Art Award by The Institute for Art and Innovation e.V. She holds a BA (First-Class) Joint Honours in Fine Art & History of Art from Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.   

Working widely with communities on experimental and interdisciplinary collaborations, she is passionate about redefining the accessibility narrative in the arts to unite diverse communities. She believe co-creation is the fertile ground where we can cultivate our ability to connect with one another, transcending diverse abilities, age, and backgrounds. Her recent works include Kuti Kuti?, intergenerational community art project that reimagines a game from the past into a life-sized soft sculpture playground. Can You Hear Me? a public interactive installation as part of the National Arts Council's "As You Were" public art initiative. A Picnic In Apart, a digital picnic that brings together individuals from across borders together during the pandemic to re-discover our relationship with food and remotely. , Bind, a participatory archival project developed during her research residency at Asia-Art-Activism. Combining traditional bookbinding techniques with socially-engaged pedagogy, participants learn to bind stories of others and our own, tracing a diversity of personal trajectories surrounding stories of care, labour, maintenance and well-being; Field Trip to Redhill, a collaboration with DesignSingapore Associates and My Community to uncover the design of everyday life, heritage and stories through a mix of guided and spontaneous wanderings. 
She also led Myths On a Red Hill, in collaboration with architects Isabella Duffield and Randy Chan, to lead a public storytelling pavilion in Singapore and reimagine an open classroom in an urban farm, Sprout Hub, for creative modes of exchange. The pavilion grows as a living archive — collectively weaving narratives, knowledge, experiences and stories from different individuals and communities.

As an Arts educator, she believes in teaching as curating learning cultures and spaces for transformation. In her pedagogical endeavours, she is committed to developing critical arts pedagogies for a socially-engaged education to build our capacity for care, curiosity and inclusion. In 2018, she organised the interdisciplinary symposium, Conversations in Singapore History '18 and And Everything in Between to activate new territories of reflection and social action. In 2017, she led Shifting Concretes, a workshop series as part of The Substation 2017 Discipline the City programme together with Karen Lam, which culminated in a public art intervention, "Can we 'Lepak' better at Orchard Road?" to reimagine and activate urban spaces in Singapore. With her love for children's literature, Jia Qi is also a published illustrator for The Little Things – a children’s book about kindness, narrated with characters of local food to inspire children in Asia to celebrate who they are; a community initiative in collaboration with Wu Jiezhen and Tampines Kindness Movement. The book has also been distributed and integrated into pre-schools curriculum in Singapore and National Library Board Singapore. 

Jia Qi has written, taught and given talks of various capacities. Some venues include: Goldsmiths, University of London, King’s College London, Royal College of Art, Raven Row London, Asia-Art-Activism, National Library Board Singapore, School Of The Arts, Singapore, Brooklyn Free School, Very Special Arts (VSA), Skillseed Sg, and Zarch Collaboratives.


Can You Hear Me?

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Kuti Kuti?

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Kopi & Myths

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Bind

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Oceans*A*Part

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All The Things I Had To Say To You
​(Without You) 

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Untitled (lost and maybe not always found) 

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Real-Doh: Fun with Apologies!

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And Everything in Between

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The Little Things - Book about Kindness

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The Art of Family Time

MORE

Stretch

MORE

The TreeHouse We Never Had

MORE

What do you not handle with care?

More

Love Clinic

MORE

Untitled (Goodnight Stranger)​

More

Untitled (Grieving in New York City)

More

Real-Doh: Together, We Can Even This Out

More

Conversations in Singapore History' 18 

More

Waiting For 

More

A safe place to un-nail your privilege

More

Field Trip to Redhill

MORE

Tree of Curiosities

MORE

A Picnic In Apart

MORE

Ghost to Ourselves

MORE

Dumplings & Dialogue

More

Is this seat taken?

More

Real-Doh Playroom 

More

Shifting Concretes 

More

洗手 (Washing Hands)

More

Fix-Aided

More

  • ABOUT
  • WORK
    • PUBLIC ART >
      • A Living Museum for Bukit Gombak
      • First Flight
      • Can You Hear Me?
      • Kuti Kuti?
      • The Treehouse We Never Had
      • Waiting For
      • What do you not handle with care?
      • Shifting Concretes: Can We “Lepak” Better at Orchard Road?
      • 洗手 (Washing Hands)
    • INTERACTIVE INSTALLATIONS >
      • First Flight
      • Stretch
      • Bind
      • Untitled (lost and maybe not always found)
      • Tree of Curiosities
      • Real-Doh Playroom
      • Real-Doh: Fun with Apologies
      • Real-Doh: Model Citizen
      • Real-Doh: Together, We Can Even This Out
      • 佳佳 Mama Shop
      • Fix-Aided
    • COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT >
      • The Art of Family Time
      • Mapping with Sounds
      • A Picnic In Apart
      • Field Trip to Redhill
      • Kopi & Myths
      • Goodnight Stranger
      • Your Familiar Stranger
    • COLLABORATIONS >
      • Conversations in Singapore History' 18
      • Oceans*A*Part
      • Dumplings & Dialogue
      • And Everything In Between
      • The Little Things Book
    • PERFORMANCES >
      • Is this seat taken?
      • Ghost to Ourselves
      • All The Things I Had To Say To You (Without You)
      • Grieving in New York City
      • Love Clinic
  • PRESS
  • CONTACT