In March 2022, the worst ever outbreak of Covid-19 occurred in Shanghai, China. The whole city experienced an unanticipated lockdown. The government originally announced that it would only go on for five days, but eventually it lasted for two long months. It is unimaginable that in the 21st century, there would be so many people without access to food in China's richest cities. I, too, was a victim in this war on pandemic in Shanghai.

This project focuses on my lived experience of the longest Shanghai lockdown, which was marked by extreme logistical and organisational issues in the city. While the government had organised a provision of supplies for those who were living in their homes, those who were located in hotels, like myself, were not catered for. The lack of food, the small space, the fact that no one could hear our complaints, the fact that no one was in charge, amounted to a very traumatic experience. It led to a very serious trauma, I couldn't sleep well at night, and was in a constant state of overwhelming anxiety and longing for freedom, and how to allocate my night time became a constant obsession.

My project draws on the concept of repetitive behaviour to show the aftermath of living for a prolonged period of time in a claustrophobic environment. The video was inspired by Bruce Nauman’s Dance or Exercise on the Perimeter of a Square (1968) to reflect on my feelings of imprisonment while locked up in a dark room for two months. The video captures the feeling of isolation by shutting off the outside environment from my room. I used paper tape to make a square frame on the floor, with the paper tape as a sealed, non-porous boundary between the inside and the outside. The work is an exaggerated representation of my emotional state of being out of control, anxious and pacing in my room. The use of looping shows this suffocating, anxious, painful atmosphere with no end.