A Cross Time through Dementia

This image is an homage to my husband’s grandfather who inspired my doctoral research on temporality of persons living with dementia. This collage represents his porous realities that cross his childhood in Hong Kong/Macao, the period of the Second World War, and his late life in Canada.

The orange color highlights his perceived present – it crosses him at age 98 in a nursing home in Edmonton and time in HK in 1998. In this cross-time, he recognizes me, a recently introduced family member, but at the same time, he worries about me missing the ferry between Macao and HK. I imagine the orange light may move at any moment and create a different version of reality.

‘Age and Time disorientation’ is a common phenomenon lived by persons with dementia. My research counters the dominant discourse that diminishes personhood of persons with dementia as ‘out of mind’ and urges us to rethink different ways of being and living. Drawing on Performance theories and Disability Studies, my research argues people with dementia uniquely live with cross-temporality, that allows embodied engagements with exploded time – the radically new times with alternate constructions, directions, and durations.