On March 17, 2020, the day New York City entered citywide lockdown, I began composing a diary and almanac to chronicle this unprecedented period. The work consists of drawings of each night’s moon phase and other astronomical observations, recording my experience of this time through celestial events. The project concluded on September 7, 2022, when the governor announced the lifting of mask mandates in New York City.
Spanning 904 days, the almanac comprises 1,347 detailed drawings of the moon and sky, rendered in graphite and pure silver powder on natural indigo-dyed paper. It also includes a dictionary of 1,134 Japanese terms related to the moon and celestial phenomena. The structure of the work follows the 72 microseasons, an ancient nature-based calendar that marks subtle seasonal shifts in the natural world. As a lunar calendar, it begins each February and divides the year into intervals of five to six days.
