Episode 4: Alecia Neo – Care Index Project
In this episode, I’m joined by Singapore-based artist Alecia Neo. I came across her Care Index project that collects and brings together diverse stories and practices of care performed by people from all walks of life. The Care Index invites us to perform a gesture of care in video or audio form, which is later archived online on careindex.net. Notions of self-care and caring for others are not ‘new’ revelations, but they certainly have taken centre stage in recent times. In this heartfelt conversation, we spoke about the different experiences of care especially through the lens of caregivers. We talked about empathy and listening and the importance of staying connected and grounded ultimately asking: What does it mean to listen? What does it mean to be invited to enter someone's story? Tune in to our conversation to hear some of our answers (Spoiler alert: tiger balms and our mom’s cooking are involved).
About Alecia Neo
Alecia Neo is an artist based in Singapore. She develops long-term collaborations with individuals and communities, exploring modes of caregiving, radical hospitality and well-being in my work. Her recent projects include Care Index, an experimental platform that collects and offers diverse practices of care and movement scores, performed by people from all walks of life. Care Index was initiated in Dec 2020 as part of the larger artistic research project on care practices, building on a previous collaborative project titled, Between Earth and Sky, which was developed with a group of caregivers in Singapore. She is the co-founder of Brack, a platform for socially engaged art, and Ubah Rumah Residency in Bintan. She also runs Unseen Art Initiatives, a Singapore-based platform for differently-abled professional and emerging artists.
You can contribute to the Care Index at careindex.net
Find out more about the artist at alecianeo.com and @alecianeo