Elephant in Castle

Elephant in Castle is a 2D digital animation, using a hand-drawn frame-by-frame process to create subtle abstract narratives. The work is created within the context of two strange years, 2019 and 2020. The work expresses a constant change within the artist’s inner world, to express the emotional, aesthetic, and tactile responses that she has to Hong Kong, the city where she grew up. Stepping into a new decade, the world is coming to an unprecedented and critical moment in history. The work could be a reflection on contemporary political and social shifts conveyed by her sentimental responses to the personal stories and the events/incidents that took place in the city.

Florence was inspired by the research topic and artworks relating to Topophilia. Topophilia, terms from Greek topos “place” and -philia, “love of”, is a “strong sense of place, which often becomes mixed with the sense of cultural identity among certain people and a love of certain aspects of such a place.” People in a city might come from different places originally, but they all form their own paths of connectivity and responses to the places we inhabit, and even to the particular site that they pass through occasionally.

A Film by Florence Yuk-ki Lee
Music Composed by: Just Bee
Sound designed by: Florence Xingyu Tan
Additional animation: Tina Bahraei
Additional compositing: Di Wu
Advisor: Max Hattler
Studio of production: No Reason Studio
Special Thanks: Harald Kraemer, Leung Chi Wo, Tobias Klein, Yu Ka Ho Albert