Doka Studio

Rivan Doka, a graduate of the Interior Design Department at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts, enjoys recycling used cans into cute and interesting “can monsters.” Rivan, as he is commonly known, began experimenting with cans in 2012. He explains that this exploration started as a simple curiosity after seeing discarded cans left lying around in convenience stores. Equipped with self-taught drawing skills and his playful curiosity, he created can monsters inspired by figures such as John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Gesang, and Kurt Cobain. Why cans? Because he wanted to create toys from materials that are simple and easy to find. Armed with a cutter, scissors, sandpaper, and metal paint, his can monsters came to life. One example is a Darth Vader can monster, created from pieces of cut-up cans. Rivan holds a principle of minimizing can waste and making the most out of every material he uses. Rivan also participated in Jogja Art Week 2015. The work he presented was an installation made from Khong Guan cans titled “Recyclemons.” The piece carried a recycling theme, as “Recyclemons” was imagined as a machine capable of turning used cans into monsters.