This March, SBin Art Plus will be holding its first photography exhibition – TOP POP, a digital image showcase of “Singapore Idealism” as interpreted by one of Indonesia’s most significant visual artists – Yogyakarta-based Angki Purbandono.

Using a technique known as scannography, Purbandono explores the dichotomy of Singapore, in a journey of discovery as to whether a country that is held up as a model of modernisation and globalisation, is as sterile and boring as its critics make out to be.

Featuring 22 works, TOP POP is Purbandono’s first solo exhibition in Singapore, and is based on observations made during a 15-day residency from January to February this year. His art resists categorization and appears to exist outside any specific culture, yet draws on the revolutionary energies that appear in ‘ordinary objects’ that are often unnoticed to conjure a world of unseen wonders and astounding aesthetic spectacles.

Purbandono employs and explores different images of discarded Barbie dolls – as a symbol of popular culture that everyone can relate to – with local elements to portray the nation’s history, postmodern concepts and cultures. He encapsulates the essence of Singapore as an unusual dynamism of monumentalism and claustrophobic close-up, reflecting his increasing familiarity of the country in the progression of his works.

These are exemplified in works such as Little India and Ancestors, where he utilized flowers bought in Little India and jade skulls purchased from Chinatown to depict the Indian and Chinese heritages present in Singapore; Orchard Road which describes the fast-paced movement of Singaporeans depicted through a metal dishwasher scrub; and Phenomenal Mustafa – dolls are enclosed within plastic bags to depict the popular culture of shopping malls and the plastic age we live in.

About the artist – Angki Purbandono (b. 1971)

Angki Purbandono is a professional photographer and visual artist who is generating a lot of interest on the auction scene. He has participated in group exhibitions throughout the region including Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as small solo shows at the French Culture Centre Jakarta and Yogyakarta (1999), a post-residency exhibition series at Chandong Art Space, Seoul (2006), Cemeti Art House, Yogyakarta (2007) and Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka (2009).

Purbandono describes his works as “freestyle”, where he appreciates the freedom to experiment with photography methods ranging from collage, documenting or recording, to using of a scanner device. Just like other artists working with photography, he plays with objects, considering light as important and employs a dark room to print his works.

Granted an Asian Art Fellowship scholarship from National Museum of Contemporary Art (Korea) in 2005, he spent a year living in Seoul – an experience that gave him the opportunity to explore his medium of creation, where he began using 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” in Berlin (2005). His most recent exhibition “Happy Scan” was in 2007, at Biasa Art Space, Bali. In the same year, he started a Residency project – “Anonymous” under Landing Soon – a photography research where he buys old photos from flea markets in Yogyakarta, divides them into various categories, and produces various artworks from them. Purbandono has continued working on this research project after the residency and has been collecting more than 3000 old photos. His “Anonymous” series was also exhibited on 3 Young Contemporary Artistes at Valentine Willie Fine Art (Kuala Lumpur) in 2007.

Note from Sbin Art: "In the wake of the recent earthquake in Japan, we at S.Bin Art Plus have pledged to donate a part of our sales from TOP POP exhibition to theUnited Nations Central Emergency Response Fund. Catalog sales will be donated fully to the fund. This donation will help provide rapid response and relief to the victims of Japan earthquake and tsunami. We hope that you will support us in this effort."