Relentless Melt No. 34 presents a selection of recent abstract and experimental animation films from Hong Kong. Founded in 2017, Relentless Melt is a Hong Kong-based society for the production, promotion and appreciation of abstract and experimental moving image. It regularly shows abstract animation in Hong Kong, and has presented screenings of Hong Kong animation at festivals and events around the world. Relentless Melt’s curator and chairman, Max Hattler, whose films are also included in the screening, is an abstract animator and professor at the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong.

TinT Timing (2024) | Huang Yifei, Dai Yutong, Li Zixian, Zhao Xu (HK) | 01:00 min
Time passes evenly, but the marked scale of timekeeping can be adjusted. The flashing images are a sort of timer, possessing the ability to master timing, and can blur the temporality of memory. The pointers of clock rotate with the daily corners, and time is tinted by drilling into the very details throughout life.

Burnt Fox (2023) | Jaron Kuehmstedt, Kwan Lok Tung, Tse Hiu Yin, Wang Shuxin  (HK) | 03:11 min
Sounds turn into abstract images. This black-and-white abstract animation aims to visualize the underlying music track, enhancing it by adding a visual layer to the acoustic. A combination of mixed media materials and hand and digital drawing and animation are used to create a tightly connected audiovisual experience.

& More (2022) | Tsz-wing Ho (HK) | 03:11 min
& More draws from the architecture of the M+ museum of Hong Kong. Our film challenges the definition of a museum by looking at it as an object itself. Through a geometric play of shapes and forms in the M+ building, we explore what underpins our material world.

Choi Hung (2024) | Chung Yan Yu, Guo Yipeng, Wong Yuk Enid (HK) | 01:00 min
The MTR is one of the major mass transport networks in Hong Kong. While “Choi Hung” means rainbow, it is also a lively station with vivid colors and textures. Combining the two, we wish to give you a taste of the underground metro that Hong Kongers rely on a daily basis.

Invade (2020) | Wong Man-sze (HK) | 05:33 min
Majestic shards of charcoal collide and shatter to give the feeling of being stuck inside a dust storm. Music video for the track “入侵” (Invade) by more reverb – mostly made with powdered charcoal and compressed charcoal.

Elephant in Castle (2021) | Florence Yuk-ki Lee (HK) | 04:45 min
Created within the context of two strange years, 2019 and 2020, Elephant in Castle depicts the emotional, aesthetic, and tactile responses that the creator has to Hong Kong, the city where she grew up.

Voices in My Head (2021) | Dreisty Gurung, Jiang BaoLin, Wu Chengyu, Felix Konerding (HK) | 03:34 min
The human voice is one of the first things we hear, and one of the first things that is heard of us. This black-and-white abstract animation focuses on various sounds the voice produces and creates a landscape of impressionistic sounds and images, using a mix of digital and analogue, 2D and 3D techniques.

Hand (2021) | Tsz-wing Ho (HK) | 05:15 min
A limitless array of hands gestures, forming geometric shapes and abstract patterns, all combining to create a surreal journey, set to ‘Sekktortjek Ft. Tone’ by Mads Lindgren.

One, Two, Three (2024) | Alex Bai (HK) | 01:00 min
This film features city textures, using circular and grid patterns to create repetitive movement happens among the three focus points shown at the beginning. The music was composed through MuseScore 4, as a hint of the title one, two, three.

_ImEdge (2018) | Huang Xiaowen (HK) | 04:13 min
This work focuses on the outlines of objects and transformations between each still through edge detection, to explore various uncertain conditions of landforms.

Darma (2023) | Tsang Hing Chor, Chan Ka Lam, Hung Kwan Yiu (HK) | 03:08 min
Appearance, hormone, sex appeal. When we are tired of everything about these, all we want to do is break, demolish, and destroy. With crazy cut-out animation, this film is trying to release us with the strong beat of the song and search for revenge in a chaotic but unique world.

Where’s My Stress Ball (2020) | Or Chun Yiu (HK) | 01:15 min
Created during Covid lockdown. How to turn a stressful situation into something playful.

Serial Parallels (2019) | Max Hattler (DE) | 09:00 min
This experimental animation approaches Hong Kong’s built environment from the conceptual perspective of celluloid film, by applying the technique of film animation to the photographic image. The city’s signature architecture of horizon-eclipsing housing estates is reimagined as parallel rows of film strips: Serial Parallels.

Illumination (2024) | Jonathan Yi Shing Kan, Esme Chuyi Wang, Samson Pak Hang Wong (HK) | 01:00 min
When the nights are out and the lights are up, we wander through a world dominated by artificial lights. From exterior to interior, street neons to monitor screens, radiations reflect on our retina through the lens of photographic machines. Are we not stray kids contemplating our images in this world of lights?

Divisional Articulations (2017) | Max Hattler (DE) | 04:33 min
Repetition and distortion drive this audiovisual collaboration between composer Lux Prima and visual artist Max Hattler, where fuzzy analogue music and geometric digital animation collide in an electronic feedback loop, and spawn arrays of divisional articulations in time and space.

Overheating (2023) | Jiin Chung, Lizzy Bovee, Yuna Tang, Nathan Yeom (HK) | 03:24 min
Overheating is a music-synchronized animation that draws inspiration from the Portuguese word, “verão” (summer). The film renders rising temperatures within a digital domain, yielding errors, crashes, glitches, and malfunctions. Taking place inside of hardware, this animation is projected as a medium of meta-visualization.