Art: The Noodle Theory

The young aspiring visual artist from Indonesia, Angki Purbandono, is always looking for new possibilities to produce quality artwork. The breakthrough was again made, as set out in the solo exhibition "Noodle Theory".

Angki invites visitors of the exhibition to enjoy noodle from different perspectives and interpretations. Not as food, but as a stage for stories that he presents in the unique visual image technique called scanography neon box.

The reason why noodle was chosen as a medium to tell a story is actually quite simple. It’s because noodle have becoming something very universal. Noodle, which is originated from China, has been developed into a delicacy that can be found in almost any part of the world, in many different forms.

These include cuisines that have becoming a country’s signature dish, such as Italian’s spaghetti and Japanese’s ramen. It’s also the same case in Indonesia, where noodle have became a part of daily meal for many Indonesian. The variation of noodle can be found serve in street vendors to five-star hotel.

The same as the universality of noodle in cuisine, Angki’s visualization of “Noodle Theory” is varied in form. In “The Golden Dragon”, Angki creates a visual version of the Chinese mythology’s flying dragon, honoring the origin country of noodle. While in other work, the “Superman is Dead”, Angki tried to presents satire on the danger of instant noodles. Each of the displayed artwork has its own uniqueness, both in terms of visual and story concept.

From something as simple as noodle, Angki successfully combined the conception of an interesting story with great visualization. It is as if he wants to remind us all that beauty can also be found in simplicity, and might be better than the superficial beauty that are worshiped in the modern society nowadays.