batik as contemporary art?

Tags: Batik, Contemporary-Art, Indonesian-Artists

Indonesian artists found inspiration for their contemporary work from Indonesia’s batik traditions.

Bangkok (Thailand), February 2018:

There was held the “POLA” exhibition – jointly organized by the Jim Thompson Art Center, Danar Hadi Museum in Surakarta, Central Java and Yogyakarta-based artist-curator Mella Jaarsma — showcased the intersection between traditional batik from the Danar Hadi Museum Collection and the commissioned works of Indonesian contemporary artists.

The show denotes the development and evolution of batik and its production as well as its understanding of conforming to the spirit of the times.

The artists not only present changes in motifs and philosophies at the exhibition, but also reveal enlightening facts. 

Restu RatnaningtyasOne of the artists, Restu Ratnaningtyas, made her 3-D installation based on her findings in the hamlet of Laweyan in Surakarta where it is the women who steer the batik home industry — quite contrary to the usual assumption that women are merely laborers in the production, applying the wax on the cloth. 

“Successful women here are called Mbok Maseh. Every Mbok Maseh runs and controls her own home industry and has the authority to make decisions regarding both her business and her household,” said the artist.

Uniquely, the title Mbok Maseh will be passed down to their daughters, thus ensuring continuity as the drivers of economic life here. 

Based on her research, Restu — who studied art from 2000 to 2003 at Jakarta State University and who primarily works in video art, watercolor, painting, and installations, with a focus on daily life — created Re-growing: Hierarchy, a 3-D installation of dresses that are piled up. It was made using cotton, indigo, synthetic color and tapioca. 

“I did the batik myself,” she revealed.

Restu used the same traditional batik processes as the women in Leweyan, from boiling the natural dyes in her kitchen, creating the design and applying the hot wax to the cloth with a canthing (a pen-like tool used in making batik).

Regrowing Hierarchy by Restu Ratnaningtyas (Jim Thompson Art Center, Danar Hadi Museum and Mella Jaarsma/File)

Ace House Collective

Another angle is taken by the artist group Ace House Collective, a collective of 11, founded in 2010, with the artistic vision of addressing the role and function of contemporary art in society today. Traditionally heavy in philosophical and symbolic meaning, today’s motifs and characteristics in batik cloth tend to be more design-inspired. 

Examining such a process is the sculpture Fervent Base that uses a chocolate fountain machine, batik wax, paraffin and iron techniques.

Fervent Base by Ace House Collective (Jim Thompson Art Center, Danar Hadi Museum and Mella Jaarsma/File)

For more information about other astonishing pieces of art work at this exhibition, visit this website.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2018/02/01/patterns-of-meaning-indonesian-batik-and-contemporary-art.html