Tai Kwun Contemporary is proud to announce the opening of Waiting Pavilions, a public art commission by internationally acclaimed artist Alicja Kwade (b. 1979). As the artist’s first site-specific installation in Hong Kong, Waiting Pavilions precedes Kwade’s inaugural institutional solo exhibition, Alicja Kwade: Pretopia, which will open at Tai Kwun’s JC Contemporary on 10 January 2025. On view from 20 December 2024 to 2026 in Tai Kwun’s Prison Yard, Waiting Pavilions uses historically and socially contextualised objects. The work references Tai Kwun’s history to explore the present, the passage of time, and the concept of time itself.

Waiting Pavilions continues this investigatory aspect of her practice, using familiar everyday objects from other contexts. Glass bricks, for example, are reintroduced as static, freestanding sculptures, that evoke the concept of space more through their transparency to embark on a poetic spatial exploration of psychological border. Starting from the notion of our finite existence and time unfolding as an act of waiting, the new outdoor presentation bridges the past and present at Tai Kwun’s Prison yard.

The installation includes six glass structures that correspond to a group of eight bronze casted Monobloc chairs, each in a dynamic interaction with a boulder—the boulders seem almost to be falling through the chairs, creating an unexpected power dynamic between these objects. Identical replicas, the stones present a natural element manifested as eight identical and mirrored forms. As such, they call to mind both an object and the various possibilities for existing in the present. Alicja Kwade created this installation after learning the history of Tai Kwun’s Prison Yard, including the fact that prisoners would experience punishments, inspections, assemblies, and group exercises here at different times, first of all they spend their time waiting in those cells. In a contemporary context, individuals at the Prison Yard are waiting for an appointment, an event, or a decision. Waiting Pavilions thus reflects Kwade’s thoughts on “waiting as punishment” in our contemporary lives. The size and construction of the glass structures mirror the prison cells in the nearby B and D Halls. They hint at the invisible barriers in our everyday lives. Kwade’s works frequently feature chairs to represent human presence. Here, each white chair bears the weight of a stone differently, which can be understood as a metaphor for how each of us handles our burdens.

Text: Tai Kwun Contemporary