Melancholia 2020, 2020.
“Melancholia 2020” is my recreation of Albrecht Durer’s 1514 “Melencolia I” engraving, which captures the abstract and mysterious sentiment of melancholy. In the tumultuous time of COVID-19, after having to abruptly leave behind UC Berkeley, my classes and friends, as well as forgo graduation, I was grappling with my own sense of melancholy. I saw myself in a complex and almost indescribable space, that included deep, intertwined feelings of loss, sadness, longing, pleasure, and mourning. I reflected upon my time, projects, and studies at UC Berkeley and a past that I can’t rewind or recreate. This engraving features references to the beautiful campus that has meant so much to me for four years, elements from my personal life, as well as fragments of historical art in the cabinet - a comment on the remains of the past that art historians collect, and the intermingled feelings of loss and joy as we undertake bringing the past into the present. “Melancholia 2020” is a meditation on the many layers of emotion affecting me currently as well as my ode to the discipline of Art History at UC Berkeley, a subject that has transformed my life.