Chelsea Wong, Untitled, 2023, Silver gelatin photographs,100 x140 cm

A mandala is a geometric arrangement traditionally created during meditation to achieve deep focus and receive spiritual guidance.

This mandala is my own process of remembering and forgetting. During the COVID lockdowns, I realised I was losing the memory of my friends’ faces. In 2022 I moved overseas and away from home, and after a year I could no longer clearly picture my mother’s face. After spending six months in a hospital without a mirror, even my own face became a blur. This mandala becomes a  reconstruction of memory, an attempt to recall every face I have forgotten. Yet the more I focus, the more the faces seem to dissolve.