Like many, my experience of lockdown has been both stressful and rewarding— although I felt underprepared for the events to come, I also found myself with extra time which I felt I needed to spend wisely. However, a few scrolls down Instagram made it clear that everyone I knew was taking on new hobbies and skills, and I felt the pressure to match or outdo other peoples’ efforts as they recorded their forays into baking, politics or nature.

Reflecting on the feeling that emerged, I created this series of ink drawings. Each square represents an activity, pastime or idyllic moment I could have experienced in lockdown. But intermingled among the genuine episodes are false events that I wish I accomplished, producing feelings of disappointment in comparison to my social media feed.  

I adopted a cartoon style in the series to reference the facticity and curation of people’s social media during this time. The exaggeration of content represents a version of their life that is not true to the reality of their lockdown lives, which the style highlights because of its historical use in newspaper illustrations and superhero narratives.