Sharkey, by Angki Purbandono Angki Purbandono, Indonesia’s most prominent artist specializing in scanography – the process of producing artistic digital images by means of an ordinary flat-bed image scanner – has now taken his scan-art to the realms of noodles.

Placing noodles directly onto the scanner’s glass is like setting up a mini stage where the artist plays the stage director. Such a thought comes to mind as one looks at the works currently on show at the Garis ArtSpace.

Entering the space, one is first struck by images of elegant dragons seemingly playing with noodles. In the Western tradition, dragons are often thought of as awful monsters, but in the Chinese tradition, they carry with them the meaning of luck and welfare. The dragons in his scan-art, he says, are descendants of the Chinese Golden Dragon, raised in Europe.

He lets them dance, with the noodle(s) falling into place playfully.

Of course these are mini toys he combines with noodles, which are placed directly onto the glass of a scanner. Once the scanner button has been pressed, the images are printed on first quality paper, then inserted into a neon light box, which gives a unique luster to the printed image.

“I use a simple, inexpensive flatbed scanner,” he once said.

Instead of taking the picture using a camera lens, which gives a sense of distance from the object photographed, the artist places the object on the scanner’s glass plate, where lighting is uniform and depth of field is limited, allowing the finest details to be captured. The neon light box in which the printed image is placed adds an unusual luster rarely seen in print presentations.

Arranged with a toy tank and a Chinese flag, the green flat noodles in Noodle Territory morph into a work of art with a historical twist, which refers to China as the birthplace of noodles made of grain more than 7,000 years ago.

Those in modern North America and Europe are usually made of wheat, he says referring to scientific findings.

Arranging the noodles on the scanner’s glass plate has evidently allowed Angki ample time to let his artistic urges play a role.

A very fine type of noodles, called bihun in Indonesia, made him think of the sperm whale, the deepest-diving whale, so he arranged these fine noodles in a work titled Bihun Park, suggesting a park where young sperm whales can swim before they go to sleep at 3.219 meter below sea level.

For him, playing with mini toys is as fascinating today as it was in his younger days. He can place the toys where he sees them fit, and according to his mood and imagination.

As he was “fumbling” with noodles, he thought for instance about how they could soothe a woman’s feelings, he said, as if women were the creatures par excellence to be feted with noodles. So he inserted a toy resembling a woman in the pile of noodles, calling it Noodle Therapy.

Yet, what appears as a simple play, is preceded by a thorough research into the meaning of the subject matter. This is revealed in the work titled Superman is Dead, which features noodles as we see them when opening a pack of instant noodles.

In the catalog, Angki warns that flavor enhancers like monosodium glutamate are dangerous for people with severe, poorly controlled asthma, while flavors derived from sardines or yeast extract are not recommended for vegetarians, vegans and even superheroes.

His work titled Crayon Shin-chan – inspired by the Japanese manga and anime series written by Yoshito Usui – with which he feels an emotional bond strikes a different chord. He was working with Crayon Shin-chan, placing the toy figure of the main character Shinnosuke “Shin” Nohara in between his flower and mushroom prints in neon light boxes, when the creator of Crayon Shin-chan died in September 2009.

Since then, every September, Angki has created works or exhibitions including Crayon Shin-chan, as a homage to its creator Yoshito Usui.

Of course making images with a scanner is nothing new. After all, the medical world has used scanners for ages to see the human body’s finest details, and scan-art has existed abroad for quite some time.

But to make images the way Angki does is fairly unique, particularly as he does so using simple techniques that produce fascinating results. Angki’s affair with the scanner began in 2005, when he spent a year in Seoul on an Asian Artist Fellowship from the National Museum of Contemporary Art, which he describes as a “life experience”.

His scanography gained acceptance when exhibited under the project of “Space and Shadows - Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia” at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures) in Berlin, Germany, later in 2005. In the same year, his first series of scans was also exhibited at Pocheon Asian Art Festival, Pocheon, Republic of Korea. In 2008, his works were included in the exhibition “Cut 2 Photography” from Southeast Asia at Valentine Willie Fine Art in Kuala Lumpur. The same gallery showed the subsequent “Cut 2 Photography” from Southeast Asia in Singapore in which Angki was invited to participate.

Thereafter, he held a solo exhibition titled “Happy Scan” at Biasa Art Space, Bali. Further nurtured by his participation (2007) in the Anonymous project under Landing Soon, a residency project conducted by Cemeti Art House (Yogyakarta) and Artoteek (now Heden, an art gallery based in The Hague), a photo research on old photographs bought in the flea market, his scan art culminated in the “Memories” series bringing together notions of past and present.

It seems Angki Purbandono is well on his way up. Recent solo shows include his exhibition at Richard Koh Fine Art in Kuala Lumpur, “2nd Folders” from Sukuoka at Vivi Yip Art Room in Jakarta, all held while participating in numerous joint shows.

— Photos courtesy of Angki Purbandono


Noodle Theory

Solo exhibition by Angki Purbandono
Garis Artspace
Jl. Hang Tuah II/2
Kebayoran Baru
Ph +62 21 7225785
Until October 18, 2010

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