Wong Ping’s Vimeo page features a box containing key information about the artist, including this short—and, for those expecting something befitting a moving-image maker, perplexing—bio: “A comedian based in Hong Kong.” This isn’t meant facetiously: the 37-year-old animator views himself not as a serious artist whose audacious, excessively colorful renderings represent grotesque truths about society, but rather as something of a stand-up comedian, whose irreverent jokes, rendered via said vulgarities, accomplish that task just as well. In a video profile for Art Basel, he elaborates, “Comedies have different punchlines . . . but behind all the hilarity, there is always an underlying message.”
Wong Ping’s Fables 2 presents just two stories. In the first, a wealthy cow accidentally gores a police officer during a protest and goes to jail. He later regains his wealth, reinvesting it into the lottery system in order to share his happiness with the public. In the second, three conjoined rabbits—two of whom wish to be judges and one who’s obsessed with magic—attempt to survive various struggles. The animation style in both Fables is more intricate than the artist’s previous works, with the nuances of each story happening on-screen even as a consistent tableau is maintained. They’re also less violent and sexually explicit, which Wong Ping attributes to his having wanted to make something for children. “They’re fables, so they use a motherly digital voice,” he said during a live conversation at Art Basel in 2019, referencing the works’ use of a female narrator rather than himself, as per past films. He added, “I hope Wong Ping’s Fables can one day replace Aesop’s Fables in the library.” It’s an unlikely but undeniably bold desire.
