<Traces of Forgetting> 2026. video installation. 400 x 1200 x 700 cm
Traces of Forgetting
Traces of Forgetting is a video installation incorporating layers of translucent fabric to visualize the temporal gaps and transformations of memory.
The work began with an attempt to recall a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock film one month after watching it. The gaps and discrepancies that emerged between the original scene and my recollection were expressed through processes of painting over, dissolving, and cutting away parts of the image.
These distorted and fading memories, intertwined in a state of confusion, are projected onto multiple layers of mesh fabric, forming what I call the "Veils of Memory."
Through these overlapping screens, viewers are invited to drift through a fragmented landscape of imperfect memories, where reality and illusion, truth and delusion intersect.
Through this work, I sought to suggest that the memories of my mother, who is living with Alzheimer's disease, may not be so different from my own, or indeed, from those of all of us.
The Repository of Forgetting
The Repository of Forgetting is a drawer-like sculptural installation containing eleven video channels. The work was inspired by the drawers of a wardrobe in my mother's room, who is living with Alzheimer's disease.
One of the most common symptoms experienced by people with Alzheimer's disease is the delusion of theft. Unable to remember where they have placed important belongings, they may come to believe that someone has stolen them. The more carefully they hide their possessions to prevent theft, the more difficult those objects become to find, creating a recurring cycle.
In my mother's drawers, all kinds of miscellaneous objects are concealed between layers of clothing, as though they were precious treasures. I came to see these drawers as a space that symbolically reveals a paradoxical struggle: the desperate attempt of someone losing their memory to preserve what is slipping away.
The eleven video channels embedded within The Repository of Forgetting are composed of images taken from my mother's family photo albums. I first introduced subtle movements to these images using Adobe After Effects, then printed them and physically altered them through various techniques, including erasing parts of the images with xylene, applying acrylic and oil paint, and using monoprinting. These manually transformed images were then reintroduced into the moving-image process.
Each drawer is designed to open and close in different directions. The videos, visible through translucent acrylic panels, create the impression of fragmented traces of uncertain memories flickering and shifting beneath the surface.
