TAP CHAN

The Castle / 2022

Solo Exhibition at Art Basel HK

The piece titled The Castle crafted from authentic beeswax, uses the form of a beehive as a metaphor for utopian systems—idealized visions of perfect order and harmony. However, by intentionally removing the cells, the hive becomes non-functional and uninhabitable, creating a sense of eerie ambivalence or discomfort. This emptiness and dysfunction reflect the unsettling qualities of current technologies like artificial intelligence, which can seem both promising and threatening. Drawing on the hidden metaphor in Franz Kafka’s The Castle, where the elusive castle represents an inaccessible authority and the struggle for meaning within an opaque system. The artwork channels a similar sense of alienation and paradox and reflects on the absurdity and contradictions of our world, where creations that symbolize order and community become hollow or paradoxical, evoking both aspiration and futility.

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