“Dragon’s Delusion” Screening and Artist Talk

Making its dazzling North American debut, the award-winning Dragon’s Delusion from Hong Kong animator Kongkee immerses audiences in the artist’s futuristic, neon-soaked dystopias that draw on myth, poetry, and eternal questions about life and death, man and machine, reality and illusion. The 30-minute film imagines the legendary Chinese poet Qu Yuan’s soul on a journey from the Warring States period more than 2,000 years ago to a fantastic 21st-century Asia of cyborgs, popstars, ancient enemies, and surprising romantic reunions. At its heart is the mystery of whether we can ever truly know ourselves and master our desires, as Qu Yuan, embodied now in the mechanical “Android Joe,” returns again and again to the places and people of his past.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Kongkee, a.k.a. KONG Khong-chang, ( born June, 1977, Malaysia ) is an animation director and visual artist based in London. He was the Founder of studio Penguin Lab since 2008. In 2015, Kongkee collaborated with britpop group BLUR. He created comic book “Travel to Hong Kong with Blur” for the group’s album The Magic Whip, which became a big hit. In 2012 Comics Detournements: La littérature de Hong Kong en bande dessinée (co. Chihoi) was published in French in Europe. Kongkee started the conceptualization of a cyberpunk animation to reimagine the Warring States with cyborg and Shamanism. The original short Dragon’s Delusion: Preface won the Japan TBS channel “22nd DigiCon6 Asia Grand Prize” in 2020. His most recent work “Flower In The Mirror,” an interactive video installation commissioned M+ Museum, is currently on view in Hong Kong.