Hendra Priyadhani, or usually dubbed as Blankon, is an artist graduated from the Graphic Arts of the Indonesian Institute of the Arts, Yogyakarta. He lives in Yogyakarta. He is known for his approach of using collages with mixed media for his 2 and 3 dimensional works. He uses items he found around his house or the flea market. In addition to visual arts, he enjoys discussing fashion, music, and fans in the Macanista project. He is the vocalist of the heavy metal band called Sangkakala. He partakes in many national and international events. Recently, he was invited for a residency of 3,14 Social Responsibility Project, Residencies and Presentation, Hong Kong in 2018 and 2019. He often organizes group exhibitions such as Fete Maritime Internationale-Les Tonnerres de Brest in Brest, France (2012) and ART FORMOSA in Taipei, Taiwan (2018). His latest solo exhibition was titled Capulet Bar, held at Kedai Kebun Forum (2010).
For Biennale Jogja this year, he will specifically discuss customization, a process in which technology, products, and lifestyle are customized to tackle the life challenges faced by Indonesian people. Politically, his artwork shows the power structure of science, technology, and economy in the most basic scale, i.e. How we, as citizens of once colonized country, only have access to the consumption aspect. Additionally, he also presents the methods of technological appropriations as the means to eliminate the structural gap in the clever manner. This practice is now known as incorporation, a process of “customizing” a product to function differently from its intended functions, or modifying a product into something else with different forms and functions.
