Royce NG
Credit: Royce Ng
Royce NG is an artist based in Hong Kong whose practice spans digital media, performance, installation, and research. His work explores the intersections of modern Asian history, transnational trade, political economy, and visual culture, examining how colonial infrastructures continue to shape contemporary societies.
Through long-term artistic research, speculative storytelling, and performative lecture formats, Royce NG investigates the historical entanglements of capitalism, empire, and memory across Asia and beyond.
His work has been presented internationally at the Gwangju Biennale, the Busan Biennale, PERFORMA New York, Zürcher Theater Spektakel, Theatre der Welt, and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Seoul. His performance Kishi the Vampire, which received its European premiere at Zürcher Theater Spektakel, reimagines the life of Japanese Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi as a vampire narrative to explore the colonial and economic foundations of postwar East Asia. Other major works include Ghost of Showa, which premiered at Theatre der Welt in Hamburg before being presented at MMCA Seoul.
Royce NG is currently developing The Opium Museum, an ongoing cycle of performances examining the role of opium in the formation of the modern Asian state, with a focus on Manchuria and Zomia. Between 2013 and 2016, he was Artist-in-Residence at the Johann Jacobs Museum in Zurich, where he collaborated with anthropologist Daisy Bisenieks on the exhibitions A Season in Shell and Mutual Aid, investigating the economic and cultural relations between Africa and Asia.