Between Earth & Sky (2018)
3 Sept 2022 - 26 Feb 2023, ArtScience Museum, Singapore
Video Installation and Photography printed on kites with Bamboo frame
Working with the movements and perspectives of a community of caregivers of persons with mental illness, Between Earth and Sky connects the physicality of care work and personally choreographed movement as forms of body practice. Emphasis is drawn towards the potential of physical movements for expressivity beyond functionality. In using the body as a central axis for expression rather than as a tool, attention is momentarily (re)centred on the caregiver who has long learned to bear weight but may have forgotten how to give weight.
Over the course of the year-long project, artist Alecia Neo collaborated with movement artists Sharda Harrison and Ajantha Anwari to design movement and voice workshops to aid the caregivers in processing and harnessing their lived experiences in unfamiliar but potentially helpful ways, culminating in self-choreographed performances. Rather than seeking to narrativise or dramatise trajectories that often do not follow a strict teleology, the works in this piece form a tapestry of the heterogeneous nature of caregiving, surfacing the repetition, frustration, tenderness, tedium, discovery, ambivalence, improvisation, intimacy, and commitment between those who care and those they care for.
Between Earth and Sky uses the kite as a symbol for both vulnerability and freedom. Shaped like shields, each of the 14 kites bears photographs of closeups of clothings from each caregivers and their loved ones, forming a collective body. Placed side by side, each kite represents the deep connection between the two and alternative futurities of caregivers and the realities of persons with mental illness, surrogates taking flight where their bodies cannot yet go. The kites were also flown by the caregivers and members of the public were invited to share the weight in solidarity with caregivers.
Performances by
Alvyna Han, Carol Ee, Frank M, Nur Hidayah, Sulis, Janet Koh Hui Kheng, Ng Sook Cheng, LM, Rita Minjoot
MENTAL: Colours of Wellbeing is co-curated by ArtScience Museum and Science Gallery Melbourne and is the last exhibition in ArtScience Museum's Season of Mental Wellbeing - a year-long programme of exhibitions and events that are intended to raise awareness and initiate conversations on the importance of mental health and wellbeing. This exhibition features 24 interactive exhibits, art projects and large-scale installations by international artists, makers, scientists and designers that reflect a range of perspectives on mental health and ways of being. In addition, there are seven artworks by Singaporean and Southeast Asian artists that explore mental health from a uniquely Southeast Asian perspective.
