On cyberpunk landscapes in modern art
Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk, currently on view at Wrightwood 659, is based on a fascinatingly elaborate high concept: a future where the Warring States period of Chinese history is revisited through the lens of cyberpunk.
The art itself is well done, with detailed and realistic depictions of the characters and setting. Shiny pieces of video mixed with glass-encased artifacts of the past.
Having said that, I had huge “get offa my lawn” energy while walking through the 2-story exhibit. The story felt disjointed and confusing. The formats never came close to the clear narrative I’d read in the text describing the exhibit on the website, which touts “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.”
I want this story, I thought, before we left to see the exhibit.
What I felt, upon arrival, was that I was missing something— that there is a visual and narrative language that is common among millions but about which I am deaf. Even though I was 14 when we first got Pong on our TV and was an early Galaga high score maven, I never loved video games— the cold stare made me nervous. I can’t sit in the stilted, unnatural living rooms of consoles.I want to hear it all though— and what appealed was plain old Googling and discovery of worlds about which I knew nothing. Read and see for yourself— consume however you can.
