LDF25: Secondary Function

Since the 1980s, de-functionalization has emerged across disciplines as a form of resistance against normative systems, with artists often abandoning utility to pursue purely spiritual or conceptual expression. However, unlike other artistic mediums, function maintains a deeper and more enduring bond with applied arts—continually cycling between the centre and the periphery of discourse. Through successive acts of decoding, function has gradually shifted from a question of how something is used to,  how it organises action, expanding into a broader framework for agency.

This exhibition focuses on the vitality of function in contemporary practice. Function can serve as an active strategy to challenge visual centrism, guiding audiences to perceive works through multiple sensory and spatial dimension. It can act as a central axis, connecting the viewer with their surrounding environment to co-construct broader narrative fields. It can also serve as an entry point for cultural inquiry—revealing behavioral patterns that reflect deeper questions of culture, relationality and material politics.

We invite your work to respond to the question:
After function withdraws, in what ways does it return?