Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk

Tai Kwun Conversations: Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk — A Dialogue between Kongkee and Ying Kwok

Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk

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Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk — Curator-led Tour

Tai Kwun Conversations: Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk — A Dialogue between Kongkee and Ying Kwok

Date & Time

10 Dec 2023 3pm-4:30pm

Location

JC Cube

Price

Exclusive to Tai Kwun Fan, Free of charge

General

Exhibition Partner

Our latest Tai Kwun Conversations will feature artist Kongkee (a.k.a. KONG Khong-chang), whose animated works offer a fantastical vision of the familiar and unfamiliar. The dialogue between the artist and curator Ying Kwok after the screening of his early works will delve into the artist's world view, sources of inspiration, and provide further insights into the creative world.

An outstanding comic artist, animation director, and visual artist, Kongkee is renowned for his vibrant and daring use of colours as well as his cyberpunk aesthetics. His artworks often feature familiar elements and symbols from Hong Kong—particularly the architecture and street scenes of a city and an era he grew up in. With everyday life as a starting point, Kongkee creatively incorporates fantastical elements to create a fictional city that mirrors the reality in the form of animation, neon and site-specific installation which visitors can see in the current exhibition Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk.

This Tai Kwun Conversations will showcase his early works: Negative Record (2000), Migration (2008), and The Crazy Pandaman (2013). Exhibiting distinctive styles, experimental storytelling structures, and innovative techniques, it serves as a testament to the artist's creative growth. He will reflect on the relationship between individuals and society, exploring the philosophical and romantic qualities that imbue his works with a sense of fantasy. After the screening, Kongkee will be touching on past character designs and settings in animation. He will also reflect on his world view, including the relationship between individuals and society, and ruminate on the philosophical and romantic qualities that imbue a sense of the fantastical in his works.

Speaker:
Kongkee (a.k.a. KONG Khong-chang)

Moderator:
Ying Kwok, Senior Curator at Tai Kwun (Co-curator of Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk)

This event will be conducted in Cantonese, with Cantonese to English simultaneous interpretation. After the conversation, the audience will have the chance to take part in a live Q&A session with the artist and curator.

On the day of the event, Tai Kwun Block 01 LG 1 & LG2 Duplex Studio will be open from 11am to 7pm. Participants are welcome to visit the exhibition before joining the conversation.

Tai Kwun Conversations is a monthly event that brings together brilliant minds from the fields of contemporary art, architecture, heritage, among many others. Join us to discover new artistic exchanges and outstanding practices in heritage conservation.


Speakers Bio

Kongkee
(a.k.a. KONG Khong-chang)

Kongkee, a.k.a. KONG Khong-chang, (b. 1977, Chinese, born Malaysia, raised in Hong Kong) is an animation director and visual artist. He was the founder of studio Penguin Lab since 2008.

His work has been featured in film festivals, and captured the eye of Britpop band Blur, who partnered with Kongkee to create a comic book, Travel to Hong Kong with Blur, based on their hit album The Magic Whip (2015). In 2012 his comics Detournements: La littérature de Hong Kong en bande dessinée (co. Chihoi) was published in French in Europe.

Kongkee started developing the comic series Mi Luo Virtual in 2013, which became the basis for Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk. In 2020 a chapter of this comic was animated and transformed into a short film Dragon’s Delusion: Preface that won the grand prize of the 22nd DigiCon6, the top honour for the category in Asia. His most recent work Flower In The Mirror, an interactive video installation commissioned by M+ Museum in 2021. In 2022, his major solo exhibition Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk debuted at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, and toured to Wrightwood 659 Museum in Chicago.