Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk

Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk features the work of London-based Chinese artist and animation director Kong Khong-chang, known as Kongkee. Through multi-screen videos, wall projections, neon installations, vibrant graphic works, narrative texts, and ancient Chinese objects, the exhibition tells the story of legendary poet Qu Yuan, who lived during the Warring States Period (c. 481-221 BCE), as his soul journeys from the ancient Chu Kingdom to a retro-futuristic Asia where he is reborn as an android in a psychedelic cyberpunk landscape. Originally conceived by Kongkee as a comic series in 2013, the exhibition transports viewers into an imaginary world where past and future collide.

“Kongkee starts his creative process by researching and allegorizing the historical figures of the Warring States Period,” explains Curator Abby Chen. “He brilliantly draws ancient artworks into his own dazzling vision, revealing how the past haunts the present and helping us imagine what a vibrant strain of ‘Asian Futurism’ can look and feel like: one full of energy, music, and color that creatively entwines the enigma of the past with caution toward cutting-edge technologies yet to be discovered.”

Installed on the third and fourth floors of Wrightwood 659, the exhibition traces the life of Qu Yuan (c. 339 – 278 BCE), one of ancient China’s most revered poets. As the legend tells, Qu Yuan had been a trusted advisor of King Huai of Chu, ruler of one of the Warring States from 328 to 299 BCE, until he was banished. Left in despair, Qu Yuan eventually drowned himself in the Miluo River, a tributary of the Yangtze. Qu Yuan’s legacy is so important he is celebrated every year in Chinese communities around the world during the famous Dragon Boat Festival—which originated as a search for the poet’s body.

In the immersive world of Warring States Cyberpunk, Kongkee resurrects the poet’s soul, transforming him into an android who struggles with implanted memories from his past life. The android ponders the duality of death and immortality, the body and the soul, and what it is to be human—or machine.

Kongkee notes, “Like the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, ‘No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.’ I asked myself, what happens when a soul emerges after 2,000 years from underwater—does it seek out something new? Does it return to familiar places? Qu Yuan’s poetry has a psychedelic, wandering quality that I tried to reflect in my art, but I also wanted him to reflect the disorientation, as well as the hope, of our era.” Throughout the exhibition, recurring images of waves immerse the viewer in the android Qu Yuan’s quest to recover his soul. Kongkee invites visitors to follow along as Qu Yuan rises to become a pop icon with the help of other androids and reconciles with the reincarnated King Huai of Chu. In the background lurks the dark specter of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, whose conquest of Qu Yuan’s homeland led to the poet’s suicide.

“The Warring States period was a time of political strife, but also a moment of profound artistic exuberance when many of the most enduring and potent motifs became embedded across ‘Chinese’ culture: snake-like dragons, all-over geometric patterns, spirit guides to aide your pursuit of longevity—even immortality,” said Jay Xu, the Barbara Bass Bakar Director and CEO of the Asian Art Museum. “Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk offers us all a way to connect the past to the present and to value how the digital crafts and digital storytelling of today—animation, video art, even video games—share the same kinds of hard-won techniques, inspiration, and cultural influences as the bronzes, jades, and lacquerwares of old once did.”