Circus of Doraemon. Courtesy of Angki Purbandono
Using mediums or devices that are common in our modern world, Angki Purbandono creates works that are unusual and fascinating.
"Two Folders From Fukuoka", a solo exhibition that will run until Feb. 28, 2010, at Vivi Yip Art Room 2, shows the fruit of a 40-day residency in Fukuoka with two series of works titled "Memories" and "From Earth".
Particularly striking is the piece called Japanese Soldier and the Large Fish of the Memories series.
Set in neon light boxes, the images appear like fantastic photographs evoking a sense of both the absurd and the beautiful.
The subject of the piece, the Japanese soldier, is indeed a photograph, however the entire work, the photograph and the large box of raw fish, is made using a simple flatbed scanner.
Angki, who likes to collect photographs he has found, usually in flea markets, did the same during his time in Japan.
For the Memories series, he slipped an old photograph into a box of fish that are commonly sold in the supermarkets of Fukuoka.
Printing the lot with the scanner's lid kept open, the result is the stirring image as seen in Japanese Soldier and the Large Fish.
The sense of illusion in this image is also enhanced in the image of little toy cars, while the photograph of a Japanese soldier against a flower bed evokes themes of war and peace.
But when asked, Angki Purbandono said he had not had any message in mind when he made these works of art.
He said he was just playing with objects. But surely it's not for everyone, making a work of art with a scanner.
His second series in the exhibition, From Earth, shows fruit with images of small toys featuring the Japanese manga figures like Doraemon, or peppers that appear in their entire freshness.
Purbandono is an artist of contemporary photography who takes the element of light in due consideration.
A skilled photographer, he knows the scanner as he does the camera, and also knows how to arrange his objects on the glass plate to create an image that is aesthetic and appealing.
Perhaps, despite their many basic differences, the scanner is similar to the camera.
Japanese Soldier and the Large Fish. Courtesy of Angki Purbandono
What is remarkable is that Angki prints the scanned images in a dark room in a similar process as photo negatives.
Once it's printed on Hahnemueller paper, the image is put in a neon light box, which increases the transparency of the image.
Using the scanner to digitally make photographic images is not new, the process has largely been used for medical purposes, but its use to make art is reasonably new, making Angki one of the first to produce scan photography art (also known as scanography) in the Indonesian art community.
Angki began to explore the abilities of scanners when in Seoul. He reveals his scanography first gained acceptance through his "Space and Shadows-Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia" exhibition at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in the German capital, Berlin in 2005.
In the same year, his first scan series was also exhibited at Pocheon Asian Art Festival, Pocheon, Republic of Korea. Three years later, his scan works were exhibited at Valentine Willie Fine Art gallery in Kuala Lumpur. The same gallery presented the exhibition in Singapore where Angki was invited to participate.
Internationally, scanography artists are manifold, creating works of extreme appeal with flowers, plants, people or objects, and one may well say that the scanner, once an extension to photography is well on its way to make its own mark in the world of art.
Two Folders from Fukuoka
Solo exhibition by Angki Purbandono
until Feb. 28 , 2010
Vivi Yip Art Room 2
Annexe Marketing Gallery
Ciputra World
Jl. Prof Satrio Kav 11
Casablanca, Jakarta Selatan
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