Aoyin

This work, titled “Aoyin” after a mythical monster of Chinese folklore is a reflection on the 2020 pandemic. In particular the deleterious effect of lockdowns on mental health.

I chose Aoyin as the title because the monster purportedly feeds on human brains. I thought it an apposite analogy for the visitation to our homes of SARS_cov2 and the accompanying fracturing of truth and rationality in the face of a crisis, both of medicine and of media.

I wanted to explore the effect lockdowns have psychologically and the significance of struggling against an invasive pathogen that can’t be experienced directly. SARS_cov2 exists as a biological entity, but also as an abstraction, a ‘Social Imaginary’ concept constructed on unreliable foundations—a monster of the mind, like the Aoyin.

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