At the Tai Kwun arts and heritage centre in Hong Kong, artist Isaac Chong Wai presents “An Intimate Surrender,” his first solo live-art commission in the city where he was raised. The exhibition runs through August 9 at JCC Contemporary on the third floor, featuring performances by an all-male ensemble of Hong Kong dancers amid large, blue-tinted steel-and-glass installations.
Chong, a 36-year-old gay artist currently based in Berlin, draws significant inspiration from the 1993 Chinese film Farewell My Concubine, directed by Chen Kaige. The film, which starred Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing, a pioneering gay icon in Hong Kong, resonates deeply with Chong’s personal identity and artistic vision. Cheung’s portrayals of complex male relationships and his tragic character in the film left a lasting impression on Chong, who was 12 when Cheung died in 2003.
The installation incorporates a continuation of Chong’s “Touched” series, in which mirrored wardrobe-like structures bear imprints of the artist’s body. Dancers engage physically with these imprints, maneuvering their limbs to match the etched outlines, creating a powerful representation of negotiating inherited forms and cultural legacies. The choreography embraces elements of Peking opera—particularly its distinct physical vocabulary and themes of identity explored in Farewell My Concubine—and includes repeated reenactments of the opera’s iconic suicides. These sequences are performed rhythmically to a percussive soundtrack by Japanese artist Nobutaka Shomura.
Central to the performance is the motif of slow-motion falling, which Chong says symbolizes vulnerability and collective resilience. The dancers’ interactions evolve from delicate “Lotus Hand” gestures, linked to traditional Peking opera, to physical support networks where performers catch one another’s falls. Chong deliberately cast an all-male ensemble to challenge conventional notions of intimacy dominated by heterosexual narratives, aiming to illustrate intimacy outside binary frameworks.
Chong’s exploration of fragility and protection is rooted in personal experience. In 2015, while living in Berlin, he was attacked with racial and homophobic violence—an incident that spurred his ongoing artistic inquiry into collective resistance and mutual support. He integrates the audience into the work through mirrored surfaces that reflect visitors’ images, dissolving the boundary between observer and participant.
Holding a master’s degree in public art from Germany’s Bauhaus University Weimar, Chong sees authenticity in vulnerability. “When you fall down, that’s very real,” he said, contrasting fragility with deceit. The exhibition is curated by Louiza Ho Yun-yu and includes scheduled performances and durational interventions from Tuesday through Sunday.