One Minute of Care
Video Installation (2023)
Runze Feng
The genesis for One Minute of Care (2023) lies partially within care ethicist Nel Noddings’ conviction that true care isn't self-projection, but embracing others, listening deeply, and integrating their presence into oneself – amplified by Arthur Kleinmann’s insight that caring for others inevitably becomes care for the self, as human needs and vulnerability bind us all. Yet the raw catalyst emerged not from philosophy, but from my mother’s piercing reproach: “You spend every day devising grand schemes to show care for strangers, yet refuse to pause just one minute to answer me. Is this your message about giving?” Her words jolted me into realizing care dwells not in meticulously planned projects, but in life’s fleeting pauses – the simple readiness to stop our activity (whether working or passing strangers) and genuinely listen, even briefly.
In response, I placed two unassuming stools side by side in our community. Sitting silently on the left, I invited passersby—neighbors, acquaintances, strangers—to occupy the right stool and share anything they wished. Later, these intimate exchanges coalesced into a 60-second film: beginning with an opaque void, voices layer softly. At center-right, freeze-frame portraits of each speaker slowly emerge. As each narrative unfolds—interweaving, dissolving—my own image on the left grows more distinct, its visibility shifting from near-transparency to defined form through the act of listening. This visual metamorphosis embodies how attentively holding another’s words subtly reshapes the boundaries between us. Their presence grounded me in the tangible humanness of care—made me feel more distinctly anchored within my own existence through those ordinary, generative moments of mutual attunement. It reveals how care often flows not from spectacle, but from barely audible gestures woven into life’s fabric.
After all, we are all impermanent. Yet present or gone, we truly remain cradled within a living mesh of care — not sustained by grand promises, but by the quiet grace exchanged in glances, silences, and brief moments where two beings simply meet.