building diamonds
Poklong Anading
building diamonds
2018–2019
Published by MO_Space
January 2019
©Poklong Anading
Printed in Makati, Philippines
Watch the flipbook animation here.
about
the book
building diamonds
2018–2019
Published by MO_Space
January 2019
©Poklong Anading
Printed in Makati, Philippines
Watch the flipbook animation here.
Objects and Flipbooks
MO_Space AFP 2019
An object on a table or shelf has reached the stasis its maker destined it for. But the movement never ends, for some artists. The process was just arrested—by a subjective decision or even a deadline. My guess is that’s why variations on a theme or multiples get made. An artist is the image of a moving image. His objects just mark where the tumult has taken a breather. To generate an actual moving image though, he only needs to turn to film or digital video technology.
Or he can make a Flipbook.
The humble Flipbook is one of the simplest mediums for breathing life into images. It is probably the most direct and tactile way of transforming still images into living vignettes of movement. It is patently low-tech, even no-tech.
The feel of paper, the gentle whirring sound, and the miniature breeze generated make flipping a Flipbook a uniquely simple pleasure. This activity, commonly reserved for school children, hobbyists, and students of animation can be a viable medium for the ‘serious’ contemporary artist. The “Do Not Touch the Artwork” sign will certainly not apply.
A moment of movement through one’s fingers can be powerful on a very personal level, story or no story, abstract or not so abstract, pointed or pointless, drawn or undrawn; most certainly, not static.
See the Flipping Out exhibition here.
about
the book
About the Artist
Poklong Anading (b. 1975, Manila, Philippines; lives and works in Manila) works with a wide range of mediums and is acclaimed for his pieces that investigate photography and travel. Fascinated with the process of creation and permutation, Anading explores different mediums to engage with a range of sociopolitical and environmental questions. Having begun his career as a painter, he is not driven by an overt agenda, but prefers to let his mind wander, thinking with and through his materials as they undergo their transformations. He frequently uses found objects and discarded materials that lead him to investigate notions of worth and value, and to explore what it means for art to exist inside and beyond capitalist production.
Anading has completed residencies with Big Sky Mind, Manila, Philippines (2003 to 2004), Common Room, Bandung, Indonesia (2008), Bangkok University Gallery, Thailand (2013), Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung, Indonesia (2013), Philippine Art Residency Program - Alliance Francaise de Manille in Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris, Centre Intermondes, La Rochelle in France (2014) and das weisse haus, Vienna Austria (2018). He had solo exhibitions in Galerie Zimmermann Kratochwill, Graz, Austria (2010 and 2012), Taro Nasu in Japan and Athr Gallery in Jeddah (2016), 1335MABINI in Manila, Philippines (2013, 2015 and 2017). He has been included in notable group exhibitions such as: Gwangju Biennial, South Korea (2002 and 2012), No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia, the first exhibition of the Guggenheim UBS Map Global Art Initiative in New York, Hong Kong and Singapore (2013 to 2014), 5th Asian Art Biennial: Artist Making Movement, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan (2015), The Shadow Never Lies, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, Afterwork, Para Site, Hong Kong, China and in the Architecture Biennale for the 15th International Architecture Exhibition, Philippine Pavilion: Muhon: Traces of an Adolescent City at Palazzo Mora, Venice, Italy (2016), Constellations, Photographs in Dialogue, SFMOMA, California, USA (2021), Living Pictures: Photography in Southeast Asia at National Gallery Singapore (2022) and The Open World, Thailand Biennale (2023).
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