- Hong Kong artist Kongkee presents a cyberpunk take on Chinese history and a twisted vision of the future at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.
- Pilots for a film about Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang finding the elixir of life and ruling a futuristic world spectacle, as well as a video of Hong Kong icons being wiped out.
In September, Kong Hong-Chuen (also known as Konkky) got lucky. Due to the poor state of Sino-American relations, the artist was asked by a major San Francisco museum to replace a delayed China exhibition with its own exhibition based on Hong Kong-inspired revisionist Chinese history.
This alone symbolizes Hong Kong's traditional role as a mediator between East and West.
Cyberpunk Warring States, which took two months to create at the Asian Art Museum, is also a showcase for Hong Kong's famous efficiency.
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Despite Kong's use of visual clichés such as neon signs, the Star Ferry and Tong -Laut apartment buildings, this impressive rendering creates the possibility of seeing the city as a next-generation cultural icon, belonging to the sci-fi genre that portrays itself as Asian. Futurism It challenges our understanding of technology and progress.
Indefinitely delayed, Lost Kingdoms of Ancient China will fill Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang's new 8,000-square-foot museum pavilion with 150 Bronze Age items from five Chinese museums.
The exhibition will cover the phoenix-worshipping kingdoms of Zeng and Chu, which existed during a turbulent and war-torn era before Qin Shihuang, the ruler of the Qin kingdom, defeated his regional rivals and conquered the kingdom in 221. a. Proclaimed by the First Emperor, a time that seems to fascinate Kong.
© Provided by South China Morning Post . The exterior of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, home of the artist known as Kongki.“We were on the radar of Sino-American politics and China could not start the shipments. Kongkie was already preparing a spin-off show for The Lost Kingdoms, so I called him and asked if he could expand his show,” says Abby Chen. , director of the Museum of Modern Art.
Kong, 45, is well-known in Hong Kong as the cartoonist behind the subversive series Pandaman and as a former member of British band Blur.
Last year, the city's M+ Museum of Visual Culture commissioned him to create an interactive video installation called Flor en el espejo.
© South China Morning Post by artist Kongky in his studio in Kowloon Bay. Photo: Edmond SoBack at the Kowloon Bay studio, Kongkie (in Cantonese, the suffix -kee turns the last name into a company name, like an apostrophe in English) explains that he was able to meet the tight deadline in San Francisco because he had so many. the material for cyberpunk, a psychedelic animated film in development since 2013 called "Dragon's Delusion".
In the dystopian version of Chinese history that Kong hopes to one day make into a movie, the First Emperor Xu Fu's alchemist discovers the life force, and an evil and cruel ruler rules a future technodictatorship populated by cyborgs and robots who coexist with humans. . not like Ka 210. buried with the terracotta army
One of the robots, Joe, inherited the mind and memory of the poet Qu Yuan, a true literary legend and personal hero of Kong, who was a court official in the Kingdom of Chu. His martyrdom by drowning in the Miluo River inspires the annual Chinese Dragon Boat Festival.
© South China Morning Post Courtesy of entry by KongkeeAt the entrance to the San Francisco exhibit, there was supposed to be an honest nod to the exhibitor: a pair of giant pink neon signs in the shape of Taotie, a mythical monster with an insatiable appetite who often seasoned bronze ritual vessels. the years Kong's version reflects the Internet giants' thirst for data and users' desire for followers and recognition.
The choice of neon is one of the most obvious signs of Hong Kong culture: an attempt to confiscate exotic clichés and integrate them into an imagined future where Asian voices drive the narrative. He says that the 'real' Hong Kong is a mixture of East and West, just as Kong itself is a mixture of different cultural identities.
His mother, a Malaysian Chinese, met his father, an illegal Chinese immigrant, in Hong Kong. She returned home to give birth, and brought Kong to Hong Kong a few months later. He studied Fine Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and immersed himself in local pop culture, classic cyberpunk films and Japanese anime.
This show is science fiction, but it's not about the future. It's about how we feel today.
drawn horse
Earlier this year, he and his wife joined the army of Hong Kongers who emigrated to the UK (although he will return often).
His art expresses a philosophical view of disorders. In the colorful psychedelic space he created in San Francisco, murals, videos and lenticular reproductions explore ideas about perspective.
From cyborg imagery based on previously released trailers and the first chapter of Dragon's Delusion (raised on Kickstarter in 2020) to a saying based on a single video titled "You Can't Step In The Same River Twice " (2022). Greek philosopher Heraclitus
© Courtesy of South China Morning Post . ImageThe motif of water runs through many exhibitions, he says, representing the fluidity of identity and the irresistible force of historical cycles.
The river is a video projection where symbols of Hong Kong, such as street signs and stone lions, reminiscent of the guardian angels of a certain bank, are carried away like the debris of a typhoon. While this can be interpreted as an account of destroyed property, work can also be interpreted positively as a promise of change.
By screening three trailers for Illusion of the Dragon, Kong connects his artistic practice to the broader international conversation about the role of science fiction in combating injustice (think Black Panther ).
© Provided by South China Morning Post . the sceneHis exhibit, which also includes informational panels about Chinese history and authentic Bronze Age artifacts from the museum's collection, is an Asian story about how we think about the past and the illusion of our progress, he says.
"There is a great fondness for science fiction developed by people's cultural backgrounds. This show is science fiction, but it's not about the future. It's about how we feel today. Wish Fulfillment Technology, this is the elixir of life that Emperor Qin was looking for. But if we had a second life, would we make the same decision again?
Cyberpunk Warring States is on display at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco through January 23, 2023.
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This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news outlet in China and Asia.
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