The first outbreak of the pandemic hit shortly after I moved to Beijing. Like many others in the city, those were the scariest, weirdest, and most mentally stifling days.

This illustration series is a visual essay of that time, inspired by the psychological shifts I experienced during several months of isolation from the outside world. By reconstructing and blending found images with impressions from my memory, the work tries to mirror the state of mind in which the boundaries between lived and fabricated memories smudge together.

The illustrations were later compiled into a publication, alongside poems by Michael Burton and Dann Gaymer, both English poets and musicians I connected with during the later stages of the pandemic.