Artists: Veeeky, EJ Son, Ip Wai Lung, April Lin 林森, Li Hanwei, Jaime Emily Powell and Ari Tampubolon

Curated by Nikki Lam and Mat Spisbah

The Substation
11 November–23 December 2022

Presented as part of Neighbourhood Festival 2022.



The Apocalypse is here and we are doing busy work.

Our days are spent staying awake/afloat, thriving to remain hopeful. Where liberalism persists; there is no spiritual reprise.

Woke in Fright
brings together artists who challenge a myriad of dystopian functions of our absurdist society.

Thriving in slippages of the pervasive cultural and political divides, the exhibition explores our ideological blind spots at a time of unprecedented circumstances.

A hyper/hypo-critical project curated by Nikki Lam and Mat Spisbah, the exhibition invites local and international artists to break down permission structures and decipher conformance from intent.

Enter these artistic and corporate institutional realms where ideologies and KPIs collide.

Stay woke, don’t fright. Give into the contradictions and be sedated by hopeful retreats, where spiritual, sensory and capitalist stimulants may fill you up with critical thoughts, or healing, or else



︎︎︎Read We are all bad people, Diego Ramirez’s response to the exhibition.

︎︎︎The Substation website

︎︎︎ Title design by Wei Huang 




Images credit: Sarah Walker and Gianna Rizzo (12)
Mark