Step into the multiverse with Asian Artwork Museum’s ‘Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk’

The multiverse has just lately been permeating popular culture. From Marvel motion pictures to the 2022 blockbuster “All the pieces In every single place All at As soon as,” it has turn into wieldy for each leisure and, within the latter, explorations of immigrant id. Within the Asian Artwork Museum’s present exhibition, “Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk,” Hong Kongese artist and animator Kongkee (Kong Khong-chang) makes use of the concept to discover a coalescence of previous and future that brings objects to life within the museum.

“Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk,” on view till Jan. 23, imagines a future wherein historical Chinese language poet Qu Yuan’s consciousness is uploaded into Joe, a cyborg, who then continues to stay out Qu’s life. Dwelling throughout China’s Warring States interval within the Chu kingdom, Qu drowned himself after the capital of Chu was captured by a rival kingdom, Qin. It’s broadly believed that Qu dedicated suicide as a result of he was consumed by the anguish of shedding his motherland — an interpretation that gave rise to his prominence in China as a logo of patriotism. Qu Yuan’s demise is now memorialized within the Dragon Boat Competition.

Drenched in vibrant coloration, the exhibition explores Qu Yuan’s historical story with a futuristic aesthetic. It combines a number of mediums by threading Kongkee’s animations, comedian strips and lenticulars with the Asian Artwork Museum’s assortment of Warring States interval artifacts. The exhibition itself unfolds like a comic book e book. Eschewing labels introducing every work individually, captions for every part of the exhibition inform a coherent story about Qu Yuan’s journey via the longer term. Topping it off is Kongkee’s 30-minute animated movie, “Dragon’s Delusion,” which received the twenty second DigiCon6 Asia Grand Prize in 2020. Via reviving Qu Yuan within the physique of an automaton, Kongkee revitalizes historical Chinese language historical past for modern-day experiences, reinventing the gallery as a liminal area between previous and future.

Kongkee makes use of the lenticular to conflate photos of the Terracotta Warriors and a military of cyborgs. The lenticular is a well-liked materials typically utilized in youngsters’s enjoying playing cards, the place the picture shifts because the viewer’s angle modifications. (Photograph: BETTY HE/The Stanford Each day)

I used to be transported again to childhood as I stood in entrance of a glimmering, human-sized lenticular displaying what appeared like neon cyborgs. After I moved, the cyborgs morphed into rows of Terracotta Warriors unearthed from the grave of Qin Shi Huang, the primary emperor of the unified China. Standing at simply the precise angle, the soldiers’ faces cracked into the cyborgs’ mechanical wiring as if held underneath a X-Ray. In that second, time folded in on itself — the Terracotta Warriors gave the impression to be unearthed right into a cyberpunk future, whereas my 23-year-old self stood in America a lenticular that was typically seen in enjoying playing cards throughout my childhood in China.

“The entire universe and different universes are coexisting collectively. The purpose is, it’s important to tune them to the precise channel,” Kongkee defined. The exhibition invitations us to expertise wrinkles in time and challenges us to dive into alternate, non-western methods of seeing the world wherein time isn’t linear.

Four objects from the Warring States period are displayed in cases illuminated by neon light. — As quickly as viewers stroll into the exhibition, they see 4 bins lit with altering neon lights wherein artifacts from China’s Warring States interval are displayed. On the again wall is a big {photograph} of the excavation website the place the bronze bell on the far left was discovered. (Photograph: BETTY HE/The Stanford Each day)

To construct a continuum between previous and future, Kongkee designed 4 glass bins displaying Warring States interval artifacts submerged in neon mild. As the sunshine modifications, from purple to inexperienced to yellow, the artifacts seem to shape-shift as effectively, dancing underneath the discotheque mild. Kongkee had designed the exhibition show “to offer you a sense that the item continues to be alive.”

Kongkee’s vibrant use of coloration is an aesthetic selection that beneficial properties political energy when it invitations viewers right into a nonlinear relationship to the previous that takes historical artifacts out of the museum’s fossilizing and colonial gaze. The Chinese language artifacts’ mere existence in an American museum brings to thoughts situations of looting perpetrated by European international locations in China.

“I do really feel that [Kongkee’s] use of coloration and rendering of the digital panorama decolonize the item as a result of, fairly often these vintage, archaeological objects turn into trophies the second they enter a museum — they’re positioned underneath a colonial gaze,” commented Abby Chen, Curator of Up to date Artwork on the Asian Artwork Museum. She sees the potential of Kongkee’s work to liberate these objects.

A warm color-toned illustration of a cartoon figure, half of whose head is submerged under water. — In an illustration titled “The Tears” (2020), Kongkee depicts Qu Yuan immersed in an expansive river as his tears merge with the water. This picture is projected onto an LED display screen and set in movement, with Qu Yuan’s head arising and down within the water. (Photograph courtesy of Kongkee and Penguin Lab)

The traditional artifact shows stand in dialog with 4 towering LED screens on the other gallery wall that show 4 of Kongkee’s comics in movement. In my favourite one, an animated, blue-haired Qu Yuan dips into the water then emerges, all whereas two sleeping cats nestle on his head.

“[The ancient artifacts and LED screens] break via the boundaries of the time to come back collectively on this occasion,” Kongkee defined, calling the exhibition a celebration.

Kongkee’s use of common mediums, from animations to comedian strips to lenticulars, breaks via the aura of elitism that museums can carry. He makes use of mediums which can be accessible to everybody to put historical Chinese language tales and artifacts again into the palms of the folks. These objects are now not mounted behind a glass and ossified as trophies of colonial energy or relics of an historical civilization, however offered as dwelling issues as soon as utilized by the folks.

The push and pull between suppression and liberation varieties a powerful underlying present all through the exhibition. In a gallery behind a big window, a few of Kongkee’s works may be seen from the road. Trying via the window at evening, passersby can see a person’s shadow floating in a white void; its title is “Am I Drowning or Am I Flying?” Particularly when seen from the road under, the shadow appears as whether it is flying within the sky. Nonetheless, the work concurrently alludes to Qu Yuan’s demise within the river, along with his physique bobbing within the waves. “It’s a pressure between two photos. If you end up flying within the sky, you be happy, but it surely’s additionally very near demise,” Kongkee defined.

Kongkee’s multiverse fantastically straddles the strain between suppression and freedom, mute ache and ecstatic pleasure. Strolling via the exhibition is taking a psychedelic journey in time. The effusion of coloration in Kongkee’s work shocks every part it touches into coming alive.

Editor’s Be aware: This text is a evaluation and consists of subjective ideas, opinions and critiques.