Inhabiting the gaps within archives and official histories, Hong Kong artist Lee Kai Chung’s expansive research-driven practice traces material remnants of power and coloniality across East Asia. 

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This programme features two works that focus on the unstable past of Hong Kong—where colonial legacies and political uncertainty have shaped a landscape of disappearance and retrieval.

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The Retrieval, Restoration and Predicament (2018) reconstructs the spectral histories of Hong Kong’s colonial bronze statues that were seized and displaced under Japanese occupation. In Tree of Malevolence (2024), the cryptic accounts of ‘Y,’ a counter-intelligence agent operating during the Cold War, unravel the entanglements of espionage, allegiance, and shifting geopolitical tensions. 

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The screening will be followed by an in-person artist talk and discussion with Lee Kai Chung around his archival research methodologies. Hosted by Antonio Guo, phd candidate at King’s College London.

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The Retrieval, Restoration and Predicament (2018 / 31min)

During Japanese occupation, a large-scale metal requisition campaign saw Hong Kong’s colonial statues—including Queen Victoria and HSBC’s iconic lions—confiscated by the Imperial Japanese army.

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Tracing their disappearance and eventual return, the film examines how these monuments—once symbols of colonial authority—have been reshaped by war, postcolonial transition, and evolving public memory.

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Tree of Malevolence (2024 / 33min)

The film’s enigmatic protagonist ‘Y’ recounts fragmented, anachronistic memories of her missions in Hong Kong and the Canton Fair in Guangzhou—the only gateway for international trade in China’s planned economy era. Disguised as a forestry officer, she oversees the country’s first urban greening campaign while navigating shifting political allegiances, false identities, and the blurred lines between duty and deception.