Oriental Watch Company Lead Sponsor: "Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk"

Oriental Watch Company, with its core philosophy of "Take Your Time," encourages everyone to savor each moment and rediscover the city. In support of Hong Kong artists and local art, Oriental Watch Company is the Lead Sponsor of the "Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk" exhibition, which will take place from December 9, 2023, to March 3, 2024, at the Duplex Studio in Block 01 of Tai Kwun. This exhibition allows people to appreciate art and experience the brand concept of "Take Your Time."

By integrating animation, sound, and neon art, the exhibition Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk ponders alternative histories, and tells a new tale about Qu Yuan (屈原; c. 339 BC–278BC), a legendary Chinese poet and statesman, whom the Dragon Boat festival celebrates every year. In Kongkee’s imagination, Qu Yuan is resurrected and subsequently catapulted from the ancient Kingdom of Chu into a dystopian future inspired by ancient Chinese poetry. In addition to showcasing selected works from the past, Kongkee will develop new site-specific works at Tai Kwun, which reflect upon the contemporary world we inhabit and challenge our perceptions of the past. With a large-scale LED installation and site-specific neon works, the pieces in the exhibition captivatingly explore the desires inherent in traditional narratives and craftsmanship — as well as the ways in which they are informed and transformed by modern technologies.

Casting the arched windows of Tai Kwun’s Duplex Studio with a sense of solemn spirituality, the exhibition’s first newly commissioned site-specific installation Past / Present / Future / Bleeding / Tearing / Drifting employs a digital triptych which delves into the contrasting outcomes of religious acts. Featuring a religious ceremony in the central panel, either side displays conflicting images that prompt audiences to rethink relationships of cause and effect.

Additionally, the second newly commissioned installation Time Pause Became Mountain, Time Move Became Water toys with stillness and movement in the space, using a simple moving image played at different speeds to illustrate the concept.

Kongkee moreover delivers each act of Dragon’s Delusion to Hong Kong, from Preface, Departure to Assassination, presented in sequence for the first time. The animations resurrect the First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang — who unified China and whose empire collapsed almost immediately after his untimely death — and in doing so, Kongkee tests the following hypothesis: what if the emperor succeeded in unlocking the secret to immortality and created an eternal, absolute tyranny? Revising the origins of imperial China against the backdrop of a Hong Kong-inspired cyberpunk cityscape, the piece raises important questions about memory and identity, as well as the true meaning of justice and freedom.

Visitors can also peer behind the scenes and uncover the artistry behind these installations and other selected works in the section Making Of, which reveals the incredible time, effort, and teamwork poured into Kongkee’s seemingly effortless animations. The display includes video interviews with the artist and original manuscripts which offer insight into his creative process.

Oriental Watch Company Lead Sponsor - Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk

Location: Duplex Studio, Block 01, Tai Kwun, 10 Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong

Date: 9 Dec 2023 - 3 Mar 2024

Tue – Sun: 11am – 7 pm, Thu until 9 pm

Closed on Mondays (Except public holidays, in which case the following day would be closed)

Curator: Abby Chen and Ying Kwok

Please refer to the final announcement on the Tai Kwun website.

Artist Bio

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 this category in Asia. His most recent work Flower in The Mirror, is 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.