Care Wear — FRANKIE FATHERS ARTIST

Care Wear performance, 2025, Nunnery Gallery, London, UK

The artist invited people to reflect on care. On her father Michael’s shirts, she wrote: “How do you feel caring for your parents?” She wore the shirt and asked people to respond by writing on her back. Visitors—some carers, others new to the subject—wrote responses on the shirts.

The activity sparked unexpected conversations. One young Taiwanese couple only realised the difference in their caregiving expectations after writing on the shirt. One wrote “I feel like that’s why I was born”, while her partner wrote “I’ll train themselves to take good care of themselves.” The responses were mostly negative, varied from “dread”, “avoid”, “unprepared, daunted, lost” to “I love it”, “enjoy the time that’s left” and “complicated.”