Wreck Room

Rafay Rashid

September 5–30, 2025
Reception September 5, 7–9pm

Gallery Hours:
Wednesday–Friday,
10am–2pm;
Saturdays 4–6pm;
and by appointment

We kindly ask that after visiting, you reset any game pieces for the next visitors.

Please respect our neighbors and take anything you bring in out with you, too.

About Wreck Room

Wreck Room is a month-long celebration of community and togetherness at OPEN, a new project space in Providence, Rhode Island. Conceived of and produced by artist Rafay Rashid, Wreck Room functions as a third space—a place where people can engage with one another, explore the value(s) of community, and question traditional hierarchical divides between spectator and artwork. Foregrounding healing, play, and mutuality as essential components of aesthetic experience, Rashid invites the public to move beyond the role of audience and become vital, active participants in the ongoing life of the exhibition. Rashid will be installing three ping pong tables, chess stations, and leisure space to create an atmosphere akin to a recreation center, clubhouse, or church or mosque basement. In addition to public hours, Wreck Room will host weekly recovery meetings with talks on meditation, healing, and visions for the future of our society. All together, Wreck Room is a set of situations that invite us to reimagine the role of play—and the dual territory occupied by art and religion—in our daily lives.

About Rafay Rashid

Rafay Rashid (b. 1990, Pakistan) is a Providence-based artist working within the lineage of socially engaged and participatory art practices. His work blurs the boundaries between exhibition, performance, and collective care, often taking the form of gatherings, ambient installations, and improvised social spaces—a counterpoint to the commodification of self-care in contemporary life. Rashid has performed at the Whitney Biennial, Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, and Kaldor Public Art Projects in Sydney.

About OPEN

OPEN celebrates the searching for, finding, documenting, and sharing of things. OPEN lives inside a large industrial hallway at 50 Sims, a 113,000 sq ft historic manufacturing facility turned space for work and play. Wreck Room—part of OPEN Invitation—is our first public offering.

Thanks to Dave Allyn and Thirsty Productions for sponsoring our opening refreshments and sound system.

For more information, press requests, or anything else, please contact Ben Sisto at ben.sisto@gmail.com.