A rhinoceros squeezed inside an opened shiny tin food-can; a rubberized blond doll in blue bikini fending off a bunch of cheeky, fishy intruders; a pack of toy pandas foraging for food in a forest of bamboo fungus - these describe a few of the curious and striking imageries that were created during Art Projects Gallery’s inaugural artist-in-residence program, titled  “Invisible Cities: Hong Kong”, by Indonesian artist, Angki Purbandono, after spending a month in Hong Kong in the Autumn of 2012. An exhibition will be held at Art Projects Gallery to showcase works from 02 May – 29 Jun 2013.
 
The vision of Art Projects Gallery’s artist-in-residence program is to provide a platform for artists to experience life in a foreign environment - to explore the intricacies of a new place; to dream of endless possibilities; to discover new sights, sounds and smells; to rediscover one’s self; and to be inspired by all that the dynamic and multifaceted city of Hong Kong has to offer in their artistic creations. The program is inspired by Italo Calvino’s book, “Invisible Cities”, first published in 1972, that imagines the explorer Marco Polo’s vivid and poetic descriptions of numerous cities to Kublai Khan. Likewise, Art Projects Gallery envisions the participating artist to convey his/her own impressions of the city of Hong Kong through artistic expressions.
 
During the Angki’s 30-days residency in Hong Kong, the artist explored the city intensively, absorbing its sights and smells, unraveling its idiosyncrasies and nuances layer by layer, before dissecting them and then assimilating them back selectively and creatively into his artworks. Angki, currently the most prominent artist in Indonesia specializing scanography, created the artworks for this residency with this very medium.
 
Scanography refers to the use of a flatbed scanner to capture images of objects in the creation of art, similar to how a photographer would, using a camera. For Angki who also creates art with photography, “scanography is more than the camera; the scanner has the ability to capture the finest details of the object due to its light from within and the limited depth of field.”
 
Angki’s modus operandi for his creative process and art-making begins with “playing” with the objects he had found in Hong Kong, arranging them in various compositions that he has earlier visualized in his mind, before placing them on a flatbed scanner to scan. While doing so, he is especially sensitive to the effects of the light from the scanner on the objects that will define the shadows, textures, colors, depth and details of the digitized image.
 
The objects that Angki has used for the “Invisible Cities: Hong Kong” series are ubiquitous to the local culture, habits and lifestyle. He scoured places such as at the local supermarket in Causeway Bay, at the wet markets in Wanchai, the dried foods shops in Sheung Wan and the night bazaar at Temple Street for his creative subjects, delightfully finding items such as dried fish, an antique chopsticks rest set, a frozen duck, fresh fruits and even dried seahorses that are used locally as a traditional aphrodisiac. In one of the works, Angki had added items that he had brought from his home in Yogyakarta to Hong Kong – a collection of miniature Javanese knifes – with the intent of introducing his own culture into the work.
 
While the objects used for the artwork may be commonly found - albeit some items may seem like unusual art subjects - it is the way Angki had selectively juxtaposed and composed them, together with a sense of disarming playfulness and the artist’s trademark humor, that makes these works visually stimulating, thought provoking and truly memorable.



一隻犀牛塞入一個金屬罐頭；一個橡膠、穿著藍色比基尼的金發碧眼的娃娃，抵御一群入侵者；一包玩具熊貓在竹蓀的森林里覓食──這些都在描述幾個令人好奇及突出的作品。這些作品都是由知名的印尼藝術家Angki Purbandono於去年秋天期間，在香港駐場了一個月，吸收了在香港的靈感及體驗，為藝途畫廊首次舉辦的藝術家駐場計劃，主題為《看不見的城市:香港》所創作的作品。展覽將於2013年5月2日至6月29日，在藝途畫廊展出。
 
藝途畫廊舉辦的藝術家駐場計劃，目的是為了提供一個可以讓藝術家在國外環境體驗生活的平台──去探索新地方的錯綜複雜；去幻想無限的可能性；去探索新的景象、聲音和氣味；去重新發覺自我；並讓多方位的香港生氣氣息給予藝術家創作靈感沖擊。這個藝術家駐場計劃的啓發來自於意大利著名作家伊塔羅 · 卡爾維諾的作品《看不見的城市》，首次出版於1972年，描述了探險家馬可 · 波羅向忽必烈，通過生動和富有詩意的想象，講述他所見到及遊覽過的城市。同樣，藝途畫廊設想參與駐場計劃的藝術家，可以通過藝術表現形式來轉達他/她自己對香港的印象。
 
在Angki駐場在香港的30天里，藝術家深入探討了城市、吸收了香港的景象及味道，一層一層的揭開它的特性和細微差別，然後再對其進行分析；選擇性的吸收並融入藝術家的創作里。Angki是目前在印尼，在掃描照相術的領域里最突出的藝術家。這次的駐場計劃的作品也是以這個技巧創作的。
 
掃描照相術是利用平板掃描儀所捕捉到的物體影像的藝術創作過程，就像攝影師利用照相機的原理一樣。對也從事攝影創作的Angki而言，“掃描照相術是超越相機的；由於掃描儀的光源發自其內部和其有限的深景，使它有能力捕捉到物體最細微的細節。”
 
Angki的藝術創作過程和手法是先從他在香港所找到的“玩”的事物開始，從而把它們排列成早前就在他腦海裡所想象的各種組合，再把它們放上平板掃描儀進行掃描。在製作的同時，他對物體在受到掃描儀的光的影響下，凸現物體的陰影、紋理、顏色、深度和細節所呈現的數碼圖像，特別敏感。
 
Angki在這次《看不見的城市:香港》的作品系列所用的物件都是无处不在的本地文化、习惯和生活方式。他所創作的主題都源自於他所搜索過的地方包括銅鑼灣的超市、灣仔的街市、上環的海產鋪和廟街的夜市等，欣喜的尋找物件，如干魚、古老的筷子架、凍結的鴨子、新鮮水果、甚至干海馬，一種本地傳統的壯陽藥材。在其中一個作品里，Angki加入了他從家鄉印尼日惹帶來香港的物件──一系列微型的爪哇刀──意圖將自己的文化融入作品裡。
 
作品中所用的物件都是常見的物件，儘管有些物件看似不尋常的藝術題材。這就是Angki有選擇性的並列或組合這些物件，從中體現藝術家不經意的嬉鬧感和藝術家一貫的幽默感，從而讓人感受视觉刺激，发人深省，真正令人难忘的作品。

Biography          View Works          View Publication          View Video