PRESENTATION: Kongkee-Electronic Heart Beat

Based between Hong Kong and London, artist Kongkee (Kong Khong-chang) has developed a creative practice that transcends various genres and mediums, spanning diverse fields such as comics, animation, painting, installation, and performance. His works draw on classical literature, philosophy, and historical motifs from East Asia, interweaving themes such as urban and personal memory and identity in a multilayered manner, forging a unique worldview where past, present, and future intersect. 

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Archive

.Kongkee began his career in the early 2000s in Hong Kong as a comic artist, later expanding his practice into animation direction and visual art. In 2022, his first large-scale solo exhibition, “Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk,” was held at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. The exhibition then toured to Wrightwood 659 in Chicago and Tai Kwun in Hong Kong, earning him international acclaim. This year, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa presents “Electronic Heart Beat”, the first-ever solo exhibition of Kongkee at a Japanese museum. Visitors are able to enjoy his diverse body of work free of charge across three venues within the museum: the Long-Term Installation Room, the Project Room, and the Public Zone. Don’t miss this opportunity to experience the works of an artist making waves on the global stage.

Dragon’s Delusion: Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China who unified the country during the Warring States period, devoted himself to the quest for the elixir of immortality. In the end, however, his dream remained unfulfilled, and upon his death, the Qin Empire collapsed in an instant.  — What if Qin Shi Huang had obtained the secret to immortality, and been able to establish eternal and absolute rule? The “Dragon’s Delusion” series takes this hypothesis as its starting point to depict a cyberpunk world where humans, androids, and cyborgs coexist. In this world, people connect to the “Immortality Project” system in exchange for immortality, subjecting their body and consciousness to strict surveillance and control. Meanwhile, those who refuse to submit to the system go about their lives as shamans. The protagonist of this work, an android named Joe, is an entity created by replicating the memories and personality of Qu Yuan, a shaman from the state of Chu during the Warring States period. He traverses the boundaries between history and the present, reality and fiction, confronting the fundamental question of what free will means for humanity.

Future Jataka” Series:  Jataka are Buddhist stories or tales that recount the Shakyamuni Buddha’s various incarnations in past lives. Kongkee’s “Future Jataka” series overlays a futuristic perspective onto religious tales that have been passed down since ancient times, depicting a fictional world in which AI suddenly achieves a kind of enlightenment. Can AI truly discover the meaning of life? Or can humans gain inspiration through dialogue with robots? This series employs a variety of mediums including painting, animation, lenticular light boxes, and neon signs, allowing Kongkee’s imagination to unfold in a multilayered manner. Visually, the series pays homage to religious art such as the murals in the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, China and the stained glass windows of churches, while also strongly reflecting the unique visual language of animation, comics, and gaming culture. Contrasting elements that represent antiquity and the future, religion and technology, and East and West coexist alongside each other on a single canvas, embodying Kongkee’s unique questions about faith and spirituality from an era to come.

Works that expand “Dragon’s Delusion”: Showcased along with the main animation are a variety of works that expand on and develop the worldview found in “Dragon’s Delusion” through a diverse range of mediums. Kongkee uses the red taxi door, a symbol of Hong Kong’s urban landscape, as a support, overlaying drawings of characters from “Dragon’s Delusion” and excerpts from Qu Yuan’s poetry onto its surface in an attempt to connect fictional narrative worlds with real urban space. Additionally, original artwork from the comic “Mi Luo Virtual” which serves as the basis for this series, as well as storyboards and character designs from the animation production process, are also on display, allowing visitors to visually trace how the multi-layered world of “Dragon’s Delusion” is constructed. While these works are based on the time-based art form of animation, Kongkee’s narrative world unfolds through diverse forms such as drawings and sculptures, intersecting with themes like the memory of the contemporary city and the cyberpunk imagination in a multifaceted manner.

Short Animation Works: Kongkee has been active as a comic artist and animator since the early days of his career. This exhibition focuses on his recent short animation works, showcasing the diversity of Kongkee’s art of the moving image. In his color works, he constructs a visual space where past and present intersect by referencing traditional Chinese landscape painting techniques and superimposing elements of Hong Kong’s urban scenery such as the Star Ferry and road signs. His monochrome works, on the other hand, tackle philosophical themes in an attempt to visualize the act of contemplation through a more abstract and introspective mode of artistic expression. Kongkee’s animations are highly experimental in terms of both their format and theme, depicting themes such as personal memory, urban transformation, and Asian philosophical thinking through his unique and poetic visual language.

In this way, Kongkee’s works present an alternative vision of the future in terms of the relationship between humans and technology that is rooted in Asian history and culture, unlike the Western-centric vision of the future that has been globally disseminated and entrenched through mass media. Central to this is a certain perspective based on “Asian Futurism” — an attempt to reconstruct our imagination regarding the future based on the philosophy and aesthetics unique to Asia, as a critical response to the continued homogenization of visual culture and values brought about by globalization. We hope you will take this opportunity to experience Kongkee’s diversity of artistic expression through the perspective of this “Asian Futurism.”

Photo: Kongkee, Singer, 2018. © Kongkee. Courtesy of the artist & 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa

Info: 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa, 1-2-1, Hirosaka, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan, Duration: 18/10/2025-22/3/2026, Days & Hours: Mon-Thu & Sun 10:00-18:00, Fri-Sat 10:00-20:00, www.kanazawa21.jp/