My solo installation hold in East Village The Living Gallery Outpost, Manhattan, New York.

 

 

 

        One in every eight older people has Alzheimer's. My grandfather is one of the "One" s. During the ten years he suffered from Alzheimer's, grandfather gradually forgot everyone in the family, and everyone was preparing themselves for losing him one day. When that day came, however, no one was really prepared. Maybe it is because he did not mean to forget, and we did not want to bid farewell.

 

        There is a pair of tall window blinds in the patients' room in the hospital. Grandfather had always gazed into them when he woke up from a nap. Whenever I asked him what he was looking at, he would smile and keep staring at the window blinds. I looked out from that window, only seeing the foggy sky of Beijing. 

 

        After getting Alzheimer's, grandfather copied the newspaper and wrote a diary every day as a memory exercise. During the two years after his departure, I often read grandfather's diary to see how his memory faded from characters to numbers, to lines, and eventually to nothingness. 

 

        On December 20th, 2019, the two-year-anniversary of my grandfather's departure, I have recreated the window blinds that accompanied him countless days and nights and organized his diary. I display these items in the Living Gallery Outpost today, hoping people will stop by to look at his diary and look through the window blinds to see the beautiful views he had forgotten.