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Royce Ng is an artist currently based in Hong Kong working in digital media and performance who deals with the intersections of modern Asian history, trans-national trade, drugs, political economy and aesthetics. From 2013-2016 he was artist-in-residence at the Johann Jacobs Museum in Zurich with the anthropologist Daisy Bisenieks where they produced the exhibitions on the economic relationship between Africa and Asia ‘A Season in Shell’ (2014) and ‘Mutual Aid’ (2016). In 2015, working with Bisenieks in the collective Zheng Mahler, they were selected to represent Australia at the Pavillion Without Borders for PERFORMA biennale in New York City. In 2013, his solo exhibition ‘Somali Peace Band’ took place at Gertrude Contemporary in Melbourne, Australia curated by Alexie Glass. In 2012, he was selected to participate in the 9th Gwangju Biennale and the Busan Biennale’s in South Korea. His performance Kishi the Vampire had its European premiere at the Zurcher Theatre Spektakel in 2016 where he was nominated for the ZKB acknowledgement prize. In 2017, his performance ‘Ghost of Showa’ had its world premiere at the Theatre der Welt festival in Hamburg, Germany and its Asian premiere at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of South Korea (MMCA) in late 2017. He is currently engaged in a trilogy of performances entitled ‘The Opium Museum’ which look at the role of opium and the development of the modern Asian state, the second part of which ‘Queen Zomia’ debuted in Hong Kong in 2018, with the material forming the basis of an intervention in the opium collection at the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford University. Two new large scale Zheng Mahler commissions were featured in the 2019 exhibition ‘Phantom Plane: Cyberpunk in the Year of the Future’ at Tai Kwun Contemporary in Hong Kong and in 2020, he will have his first solo presentation in Japan with ‘The Death of Manchuria…’ at ASAKUSA in Tokyo. In 2021, a series of Zheng Mahler’s work will feature in the Shanghai Biennale XIII.
Royce Ng Website: opiummuseum.asia
Zheng Mahler Website: zhengmahler.world
Contact: soloroyce@gmail.com
Royce Ng often collaborates closely with musicians, acamedics, technicians and filmmakers to develop and realize his projects.
Daisy Bisenieks is a Hong Kong based anthropologist who looks at human-animal relations and creates projects at the intersection of anthropology and art. She has been collaborating with Royce Ng as the collective Zheng Mahler since 2009.
John Bartley is a artist, musician and composer based in Melbourne, Australia who works at the interface of Reason and nature. He has composed the music for all of Royce Ng's works for the past decade. www.johnbartley.net
Michele (Mikki) Piazzi is a theatrical technical director and drummer based in Berlin who has worked intensively to realize Royce Ng's works for the stage.
Royce Ng's performative works are produced by Materialise
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 'What is it like to be a (virtual) bat?, Zheng Mahler, PHD Group, Hong Kong
2021 'The Death of Manchuria is the Prerequisite for the Birth of Postwar Asia', Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan
2016 'Mutual Aid', Royce Ng & Daisy Bisenieks, Johann Jacobs Museum, Zurich, Switzerland
2014 'A Season in Shell', Royce Ng & Daisy Bisenieks, Johann Jacobs Museum, Zurich, Switzerland
2013 'The Somali Peace Band Project', Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia
GROUP EXHIBITIONS, PERFORMANCES, TALKS AND SCREENINGS
2024
’Bubalus Bubalis, 14hz-40,000hz, in Breath(e): Toward Climate Change and Social Justice,
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA
’Bubalus Bubalis, 14hz-40,000hz’, Framer Framed, Amsterdam, Netherlands
’Buitenzorg Criollo’ in Asian Cocoa Project at Ngyuyen Foundation, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
2023
’Soil Space’ in New Directions May Emerge, Helsinki Biennale, Helsinki, Finland
’The Master Algorithm: Redux’ in Poetics of Encryption, KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
’What is it like to be a (virtual) bat?’, in Pixel Row, Vol. 7, Centre Pompidou x West Bund Project, Shanghai,
China
’The Green Crab: A Virtual Diagram of Auspicious Spatial Organization’ in Open Systems, Singapore Mu-
seum of Art, Singapore
’What is it like to be a (virtual) bat?’ in What is it like to be a bat?, Kunsthalle Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
2022
’A Season in Shell’ in Multispecies Clouds, Macalline Art Centre, Beijing, China
’Bubalus Bubalis 14hz-40,000hz’ in Liquid Ground, UCCA Dune, Beidehai, China
’The Green Crab’ in Lonely Vectors, Singapore Museum of Art, Singapore
’What is it like to be a (virtual) bat?’ in ARE YOU FOR REAL?, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (IFA), Germany
’The Master Algorithm’ in RATS! RATS! RATS! The Poetic Grammar of the Hack, CaixaForum, Barcelona,
Spain
’The Master Algorithm’ in House of Mirrors: Artificial Intelligence as Phantasm, Hartware MedienKunstVerein
(HMKV), Dortmund, Germany
2021
’The Death of Manchuria...’, Royce Ng, ASAKUSA, Tokyo, Japan
’A Season in Shell’ in Bodies of Water, Shanghai Biennale XIII, Shanghai, China
’The Master Algorithm’ in Eurasia: A Landscape of Mutability, Museum of Modern Art, Antwerp, Belgium
’Hellscrape’ in Protozones/Trespassing, Shedhalle, Zurich, Switzerland
’Bubalus Bubalis 14hz-40, 000hz’ in Liquid Ground, Para Site, Hong Kong
’The Master Algorithm’ in Adorable Big Brother, Asian Culture Centre, Gwangju, Korea
‘Presence’, Zurcher Theatre Spektakel, Zurich, Switzerland
‘Presence’, Kaserne, Basel, Switzerland
‘Presence’, Kampnagel, Hamburg, Germany
2020
'Liquid Ground', Parasite, Hong Kong
'Analogue for Digital', Krings-Ernst Gallery, Cologne, Germany
‘Borders Project’, Culture Station Seoul, South Korea
‘Next Act’, Asia Society, Hong Kong
'Queen Zomia' Space Theatre, Adelaide, Australia
'Kishi the Vampire', Nexus Galley, Adelaide, Australia
'Shifting Vision' performance with Gordon Mathews @ BOOKED, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong
'The Psychedelic Map of Asia', public talk @ BOOKED, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong
'Geo-Fictions and Geo-Stitions', talk with Nikolay Smirnov at Parasite, Hong Kong
'Think Bar Workshop', National Taipei University of Education, Taipei Arts Festival, Taiwan
2019
‘Phantom Plane: Cyberpunk in the Year of the Future’ Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong
‘Queen Zomia’, Zurcher Theatre Spektakal, Zurich, Switzerland
‘Sleeping with a Vengeance Dreaming of a Life’, Würtembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany
‘Sci-(No)-Fi’, Akademie der Kunst der Welt, Cologne, Germany
‘Asian Opium Empires’, public lecture, Hong Kong Museum of History, Hong Kong
‘The Imperial Ghost in the Neo-Liberal Machine’, Wesleyan University Gallery, USA
‘Future Cities’, Chinese Center for Contemporary Art, Manchester, UK
‘Queen Zomia’, heARTech Lab, Davos, Switzerland
‘Psychedelics and Technics’ (Book Launch), Eaton HK, Hong Kong
2018
‘Queen Zomia’, New Vision Art Festival, Hong Kong
‘Queen Zomia’, Kampnagel, Hamburg, Germany
‘Queen Zomia’, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul, South Korea
‘Sleeping with a Vengeance, Dreaming of a Life’, Litost Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
‘Metageography’, Zarya Museum, Vladivostok, Russia
‘Sleep with a Vengeance, Dreaming of a Life’, Institute for Provocation, Beijing, China
‘Rehearsal’, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong
‘Ghost of Showa’ (jungle remix), Ne'na Contemporary Art Space, Chiangmai, Thailand
‘Mapping a World in a Grain of Sand’, Atlantis Sanya, Hainan Island, China
‘Mountains are High and the Emperor is Far Away’ (Screening), Tongsaam, Hong Kong
2017
‘Kishi the Vampire’, IMPAKT FESTIVAL, Amsterdam, Netherlands
‘Kishi the Vampire’, SpielArt Festival, Munich, Germany
‘Ghost of Showa’, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul, South Korea
‘Deep Water 3D’, AFI Screenings, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
‘Deep Water VR’, Art Central, Hong Kong
‘Ghost of Showa’, Theatre der Welt, Hamburg, Germany
2016
‘Creative Operational Solutions’, Para Site, Hong Kong
‘The Transcultural Classroom’, Museum fur Kunst und Gerwerbe Hamburg, Germany
‘Deep Water’, Holy Motors, Hong Kong
‘Histories of a Global Hub’, Suzhou Documents, Suzhou, China
'Kishi the Vampire', Zurcher Theatre Spektakel, Zurich, Switzerland
‘Transgression and Syncretism’, Asian Arts Theatre, Gwangju, South Korea
2015
‘NEWYORKPOSTETPREFIGURATIF (Before and After New York)',
Performa 15: New Visual Arts Performance Biennale, New York City, USA
2012
‘Communitas’, Bild Museum, Umea, Sweden
‘Garden of Learning’, Busan Biennale, Busan, South Korea
‘Roundtable’ 9th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea
2011
‘Cats Cradle’, Artspace Ugro, Gwangju, South Korea
‘Nihon Choguk Tomodachi Bijyutsu Ten’, Kyoto Municipal Art Museum, Japan
‘Nomads on Vacation: a musical in seven parts’, Kunsthalle Gwangju, South Korea
‘Sing the Fruits of Our Labour’, Lotte Gallery, Gwangju, South Korea
2010
‘Somali Peace Band’, Kuona Trust Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya
‘Reverse Engineering’, Sunshine and Grease Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2009
‘Mozambique’, Platform: Kimusa, Seoul, South Korea
‘Hanging Altar’, Ne’Na residency exhibition space, Chiangmai, Thailand
‘Paper Magic: Asia/Pacific Paper Exchange Project’, National Gallery of Thailand
‘Magical Thinking’, Changdong National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea