The Fading Memories of a Best Friend: Graduation Project 'Phantom'

I would like to introduce the graduation project I created.

For my graduation project, I used an installation to express the memories of my best friend who passed away three years ago.

First, here is the concept statement.

I lost my best friend three years ago. For my graduation project, I gave form to the fading memories of her. For humans, memories are very fragile and ambiguous; no matter how precious a memory may be, there may come a time when we can no longer touch it. But I decided that was okay. I choose to love these fading memories.

About three years ago, in the winter of my first year of university, I lost my best friend, whom I had been close with ever since we met in high school. We weren't in the same class or clubs, but we became friends because we liked the same artists. We went to concerts, hung out, and even after we went to different universities, we would talk on the phone about our problems. Having moved to Tokyo from Hiroshima for university, I didn't have many people to rely on, so her presence was very significant and precious to me. And I wanted to keep cherishing her forever.

I heard the news of her passing about a week after she had died.

The replies on LINE had indeed stopped a week prior.

Perhaps because I couldn't attend the funeral and didn't get to say goodbye properly, I couldn't recover for a long time and tried to remember her as much as I could.

However, due to what I think was a kind of shock or self-defense, there was a period of about a month where I couldn't remember her face, her voice, the places we went, or the conversations we had at all.

It was very, very scary.

I felt terrified that the memories of my best friend were disappearing, and that I was trying to forget someone who had been so important to me.

My memories returned after that, but as time passed, they gradually faded, starting with the small details like her back, her hairstyle, her skin, and her voice. From the time she passed away until I started my graduation project, I was always troubled by this.

Then, I realized I couldn't go on like this, and I decided to make this work because I wanted to clarify how to face the fading memories of my best friend through my graduation project.

The answer I arrived at through my work was to 'not fear the fading, but to accept it.'

Memories might fade, but the facts—that we went to concerts together, that I cherished her, that I relied on her, and that I created this work while thinking of her—will not disappear.

Isn't that enough?

I have come to be able to think that way.

The hand shown in this work looks as if it is trying to tell us something, yet it also appears to be slipping away from this place right now. It feels like we could grab that hand if we tried, but there is no substance there. It may be a sad thing, but I believe this is what "memory" is, and this is precisely what makes our memories beautiful.

I want to love these fragile, fleeting, yet exceptionally beautiful memories of her in their entirety.