It was illegal for residents of Singapore's public housing to own cats between 1989 to 2024. Instead, Singaporeans had "community cats" — felines that roamed the common areas of every estate, responded to several names and were amiable to all. Devoted volunteers fed and cared for the cats, usually at substantial trouble and expense, though they were helpless to prevent the cats from sometimes being abused, getting mauled by stray dogs or simply disappearing. My series Community Cats was shot between 2012-2024 in the walkways, corridors and "void decks" within our housing estates. These liminal spaces where the community cats dwelled also represented the state of betweeness in which the cats existed. Domesticated but homeless, neither truly stray nor fully fostered, the cats belonged to everyone and no one.

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How Loneliness Goes

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These Times