"To The Dark" is a pseudo-realistic, allegorical story of a dementia victim.
My work’s main objective is to understand and express the lonely dark abyss one faces when suffering from this disease.
Instead of a traditional documentary perspective, from a so-called caregivers view, this work tries to proceed inside the troubled mind,
as if to view the world with their own eyes and feel the same level of fear and confusion of an affected persona.
Memory makes the identity of a human. We collect day-to-day memories, stack them up to build the greatest gift of mankind, self-consciousness, and ego. In a way, the past works as our building blocks in shaping our future. But if that foundation collapses steadily, crumbling the whole world around us as we know it, our primitive instincts lead us to become alone, fearful, and full of existential dread. Dementia is far more terrifying as it progresses slowly and gradually, taking away memories. Like a hungry ocean, it gradually claims its victory with each tide and ebb over time. One day it's all sunny but the next day it’s dark, gloomy, and depressed.
Amnesia progresses, first the past, next to the present, the faces of near and dear ones then come the fall of basic reasoning and intelligence, lastly, the bodily function and the remaining self-consciousness have been burned and turned to ashes. At last, there is nothing but emptiness, a hollow shell of a former self. This fall from grace of a human being is as gut-wrenching and dire as a Greek tragedy. Compared with the developmental stages of a child with the descent of a Dementia patient, it is frighteningly similar.
The only difference is as a child one is hopeful and have much to learn and conquer in the world but here lies a lonely dark corner and nowhere to look forward but the Death!
Stills
