When asked to state the best words that represent his works, Yogyakarta-based artist Angki Purbandono (b.1971) says “freestyle”. By freestyle he means freedom to experiment with photography methods range from collage, documenting or recording, to the using of a scanner device. “Just like other people working with photography, I play with objects, considering light as important and employing a dark room to print my works,” says Angki. Methods that used are, however, not new. A collage and a scanner device are both methods and techniques that widely used in photography. Granted an Asian Artist Fellowship scholarship from National Museum of Contemporary Art (Republic of Korea), he spent a year from 2005 to 2006 to live in Seoul; a life experience that gave him an opportunity to explore his medium of creation. There he began to use a scanner device to record his objects. His scannography practice gained its first acceptance when it is exhibited under the project of “Space and Shadows-Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia” at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (Germany), in 2005. In the same year, his first scan series also exhibited at Pocheon Asian Art Festival, Pocheon (Republic of Korea). Three years after, his scan works were exhibited on 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 where Angki was invited to participate. Recently he has his solo exhibition titled “Happy Scan” at Biasa Art Space, Bali. In 2007, he initially started his “Anonymous” project under Landing Soon, a Residency Project conducted by Cemeti Art House (Yogyakarta) and Artoteek (now Heden, an art gallery based in Denhaag). It is a photography research where he buys old photos from flea markets in Yogyakarta, divides them into various categories, and produces various artworks from them. He has continued working on this research project after the residency and has been collecting more than 3000 old photos. Angki’s Anonymous series were also exhibited on 3 Young Contemporary Artistes at Valentine Willie Fine Art (Kuala Lumpur) in 2007.

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