Author: Fié Neo

Fié Neo is an interdisciplinary artist who makes socially engaged works through participatory practice, wearable art and film. She creates spaces and encounters for human connection. She also designs for theatre and films in costume and set. In 2017, she set up INSEP (International Network for Socially Engaged Practitioners) which brings together people around the world in the field of socially engaged practices to share projects and initiatives. Fié has performed and showed her works at Royal Albert Hall, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2017, London Design Festival 2016, Gillman Barracks and others. She also hosts a podcast called Onions Talk.

Park(ing) day wellington 2024

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(PARK)ing day wrapped up successfully last Saturday – amidst much wind, time to time drizzles and lots of conversations with the public. My intervention – Pop up of Dreams and Imagination invited the public to imagine the future.

I had a group of seniors tell me “Oh, that’s not my problem now anymore is it? It’s your generation’s problem to solve. We don’t have much time left in ours. We were the generation that had it all – free education, economic boom… Now, you’ve got lots of thinking to do!”

And in another conversation with a group of young university exchange students, we talked about eco-anxiety, how to have hope about the future and how we are coping with it all.

Some told me that it was healing to read what others had written in my little books full of many different people’s dreams and hopes. They said it was nice to know that they are not alone. Quite a few came up to me and sincerely thanked me – they said they needed this.

This character is called Tippy, named after the tipping point. This project brewed in my mind for many years. It may be a pop up now but the end goal is to have a Museum of Dreams and Imagination.
I’ve made art about climate problems, I’ve made art about climate solutions. But at the end of the day, I realised we need hope and imagination to drive action.
I’ve lived in a space of doom and gloom, depressed and anxious. I’ve also had periods of YOLO and resignation, deciding to focus on ticking off my bucket list. It’s a world with a lot of pain and agony – wars, violence, exploitation, traumas… Choosing to live in hope and joy despite the systems and oppressions of the world we live in is an act of resistance and activism. Because only then can we manifest positivity, can we dare to dream the impossible, can we actually figure out the steps to get there. Just because our generation is handed this painful and existential challenge doesn’t mean that our happiness should be taken away with it too.

We can dream and build better because our imagination is ours and free. It might not seem like it now but we can and we will. Breathe, and one day at a time.

parkingdaywgtn #nzfringe #art #community
sociallyengagedart #socialpractice #wellington @wellingtonsculpturetrust @wgtncc @wellingtonnz

International Teaching Artists Conference Oslo, 2022

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Insect Protein Pals goes to Norway!

In this workshop, participants came together and tried making traditional Norwegian Lefse with cricket powder. While cooking together, we talked about cross sector collaborations and how to go about building new partnerships.

This session was part of the ITAC6 Art as a catalyst for change conference held in Oslo, Norway.

Travelling Scripts

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Funded by KACES (Korea Arts and Culture Education Service) as part of Asia Teaching Artist Exchange

Four artists and five participants came together to explore and exchange the personal experiences of Asian females. Over a process of eight months, artist facilitators work with the participants to create a script of their personal experiences. The scripts were then passed to another participant to be read aloud. The participants also had the opportunity to meet each other through online sessions that we organised.

An experimental film was made by Fié Neo to weave together the experiences of the participants.

Team Members: Fie Neo (Singapore), Ohkyoung Noh (South Korea), Yongse An (South Korea), Chetna Mehtrotra (India)

Participants: Caroline Yoo (USA),Yukie Mochizuki (Japan), Yuhui Cha (Japan), Anjali Gulati (India), Maya Devi (India)