De reis naar Batik

With your feet in the air and your head on the ground*

2012-02-09T04:21:00.000-08:00

Still from "Paradox of the Praxis 1 ( Sometimes doing something leads to nothing)" by Francis Alÿs

Writing about Temporary art suits my temporary state of mind better. It's feels more logical to write about things that change than about things that have happened and will never change. Still reading a lot about Batik, Nederlands-Indië (Dutch East Indies) and tribes. Especially about tribes at the moment due to my project with artist Emmy Dijkstra.

Belgian artist Francis Alÿs (1959) lives and works in Mexico City. I mentioned his work in my previous post "Sometimes making something leads to nothing". In his work he combines political statements with poetic performances. In his video 'Barrenderos / Sweepers' he asked street sweepers in Mexico City to work together to move the biggest heap of garbage they can with brooms. Sometimes thoughts feel like this. Pilling up, tumbling down over each other and all you want to do is clear your mind.
With the streets in Breda (NL) covered with snow and ice, it's a nice idea thinking about a big block of ice melting away in the Mexican sun, so enjoy this video and don't forget to watch the other video's by Francis Alÿs.

*from "Where is my Mind Music" by Pixies

Sometimes making something leads to nothing

2012-02-04T00:53:00.000-08:00

An 'intervention' by Emmy Dijkstra

Today my colleague and friend Emmy Dijkstra comes to visit me in Breda. Beginning of 2011 we started a online residence (see www.edijkstra.wordpress.com, it's in Dutch with a lot of pictures!), first with VAR (Virtual Art Residence, I also had a residence their in the virtual Van Gogh caravan). It went very well, so we continued making work together with the same theme, without actually working together. It suprising how we somehow end up with works that really fit together.

This weekend we wanted to try out making our "ceremonial Papua house ceiling". Breda is covered in snow, it looks beautiful, but I don't know if we're able to put the roof up. We will see.
In April we are going to display our collaborated work in de forest in Enschede. We both big fans of Ephemeral art and looking for a place to exhibited our work, it didn't feel right to put our work in a space with white, clean walls. I was reading the novel "The Summer Book" by Tove Jansson last Summer and I suddenly knew where we should exhibit our work. Emmy also read it and concluded the same: An exhibition in the forest.

When I met Emmy Dijkstra, I already knew her from the Art Academy, but didn't really know her, see made this really fine, small graphic work, full of people wearing tribal or traditional clothing. She had a residence in France and came back with paper dresses inspired by Tapa (I wrote a blogpost in Dutch about her work and Tapa in 2009, see "Synchroniciteit deel II Tapa"). We talked about working together, but it didn't happend until she moved to Enschede. In the Summer of 2010 our work was hanging next to each other during the exhibition "Paper in Progress" and it really fit together, our collaboration started then and there.

Next to Emmy's small graphical works, she started to make more (temporary) paper installations. Her new surrounding have a very strong and positive influence on her work. Enschede is much greener and she lives really nearby a forrest now. I really like the works where she leaves a drawing somewhere, she calls them "interventions'. She made a project for schoolchildren making with them these "interventions". It really great that she gets children to make contemporary, conceptual, Ephemeral art and that they really enjoying doing so!

The title for this post is the title of a work by Francis Alÿs, I will make a post about his work soon. Emmy Dijkstra admires this artist, and so do I. He inspired her to let her work go, be free and let yourself be suprized by the outcome. I'm really fortuned to have the possibility of working together with Emmy Dijkstra. She gives me a lot of inspiration and also it is great to have found an artist that makes things with the same theme, temporality, and feeling.

Paper dress by Emmy Dijkstra

"Here I fell asleep" by Emmy Dijkstra

Emmy's work at an exhibition

"I found a corn plant and made leaves for it" by Emmy Dijkstra

More about Emmy Dijkstra on www.emmydijkstra.nl

Temporality lasts longest

2012-01-21T01:25:00.000-08:00

"When there was something left to save" by Anya Gallaccio, 2008

In my previous post I wrote about Ephemeral art. I also wanted to tell about Anya Gallaccio's work, but I didn't dare to add photos of Anya Gallaccio's work in the same post with my academy work.

First a little about Anya: Anya Gallaccio (born 1963) is a Scottish artist, who often incorporates organic material in her work such as fruit, vegetables, plants, ice, and recently sand. Often these materials change during the course of the exhibition. Once they have left the artist's atelier nature takes over control. Flowers wither, grass grows, ice melts, fruit rots. In other works the natural course of transformation is stopped. Sprouting potatoes and broad bean pods, branches and whole trees trunks are reproduced in bronze, their lives prolonged indefinitely. In 2003 she was nominated for the Turner Prize of the Tate Britain, London.

In her work she found a perfect balance, partly temporary, partly permanent. "Because Nothing has Changed" (2000) is a bronze sculpture of a tree adorned with porcelain apples. "Because I Could Not Stop" (2002) is a similar bronze tree but with real apples which are left to rot. The bronze looks as fragile as the fruits. She inspired me to continue with my temporary works, in both my ricecarpets as wallpaper installations. She proofs that temporary art can have just as much impact on the art scene, museums and the art market as long-lasting paintings or sculptures.

"...The conceptual framework of her art is often developed from the specific site and its historic resonance. Yet the physical presence of the work is always a primary concern. The viewer’s senses are stimulated at every turn. This might be the pleasurable scent of flowers or chocolate - which at a later date might become the disturbing stench of decay. Or it might be the bold use of unexpected forms to create a stunning view, for example through the introduction of seven felled oak trees to the grand Duveen galleries at Tate Britain, or the simple presentation of a wall of gerbera daisies pinned behind a single sheet of glass, as seen in a new work, preserve ‘beauty’ 1991-2003, for the Turner Prize exhibition."
from "The Weekly Artist"

Enjoy and take time to read the titles!

"Glaschu"by Anya Gallaccio, live plants arranged in a giant carpet pattern, inspired by Templeton's Carpet Factory designs, 1999

"Preserve ‘beauty’" by Anya Gallacio, made of 2,000 red gerberas 1991-2003

"Blessed (Drawing for a sculpture)" by Anya Gallaccio, 2000

"It must give you pleasure" by Anya Gallaccio, 2001

"Because I could not stop" by Anya Gallaccio, 2002

Why?

2012-01-20T04:46:00.000-08:00

Children trying to taste the lollipop for the photo, 2003

Why make temporary art? Why make something that isn't meant to last? Questions often asked, not only by colleagues, the audience and friends, but also by myself.
It all started in my first year of the Art Academy. I made a lollypop of 150 cm. I made it of real sugar, the top part strawberry flavored and the bottom banana. It smelled great, I had to put I sign with it "Don't eat the Art" when it laid out to dry.
I exhibited the lollipop in the garden of the academy, later my mom planted it in her kitchen garden to make some photos.

Making of lollipop, 2003

Lollipop, 2003

After the lollipop I experimented with food (eating round food on a round picnic blanket only passing the food around in a circle), with soap, dried acrylic (molds of pill strips) and hair gel (inspired by the works of Nobert Stück). It was after my graduation that I made my first ricecarpet. I didn't think about "how to sell" or if it was practical, I just felt like making it. After that, many ricecarpets followed and I'm still very happy with the organic materials (rice, lentils, beans, corn, sunflowerseeds).

Cat-milk bottles with drops of hair gel, 2003

When I was little, I was fascinated by vanitas paintings. I loved the dark oil paintings, they where spooky. They carry out this feeling, this warning; "You are just a tiny dot in the universe, what comes on your path, what you'll become, no one knows, but be quick, because nothing last, nothing remains".

"In the arts, vanitas is a type of symbolic work of art especially associated with Northern European still life painting in Flanders and the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries, though also common in other places and periods. The word is Latin, meaning "emptiness" and loosely translated corresponds to the meaninglessness of earthly life and the transient nature of vanity. Ecclesiastes 1:2 from the Bible is often quoted in conjunction with this term. The Vulgate (Latin translation of the Bible) renders the verse as Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas. The verse is translated as Vanity of vanities, all is vanity by the King James Version of the Bible, and Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless by the New International Version of the Bible."
-from Wikipedia

This subject never left my work. My translation of it is much lighter. My work is not about "nietigheid" (nothingness) or ending, I'm trying to capture a moment in time, share an experience. A memory can last for ever, it's not something you can hold in your hands, but you can feel it and share it.

"Metroman's Dance" by Nobert Strück, 1989. Page from SO-OP 1982 - 1990

"Suicide soap" by Nobert Strück, 1988. Page from SO-OP 1982 - 1990

"The transience of life has been a continued subject for artists of the fifteenth century to contemporary times. Prominent within fifteenth century northern European still life paintings the burning candle or partially peeled lemon symbolised the transience of time, and consequently of life. Manifest in the symbols of vanitas the ephemeral remained within the realms of picturesque depiction, the continued diversification of materials throughout the twentieth century however transformed subject into material form.
Ephemeral works of art embody a perpetual state of physical transformation, time very literally defines the truly ephemeral work of art. Ice, flowers, sand, chocolate, in this post-modern destruction of the revered art object traditionally non-art materials embody rather than represent transience."
-from Wikipedia

Finding my place in art and life, I found the term "Ephemeral art". It is a much better word than "temporary art", see the explanation above. Ephemeral things (from Greek ephemeros, literally "lasting only one day") are transitory, existing only briefly. Typically the term is used to describe objects found in nature, although it can describe a wide range of things.

Hope I will be part of that art movement some day!

Starting with a splash!

2012-01-11T06:58:00.000-08:00

"Dandelion explosion" by Walter Mason in 2005

First of best of wishes for 2012! Let it be a year full of things you want to do! And get time to do it!
Tried to make a list of things to do today, what has to come first on my blog and when. I got a call that my studio was maybe flooded so I dropped my plans, left my mind and headed there. Lucky for me, it's my next-door-neighbor's studio that is probably flooded...When I got back I started cleaning out my closet (because I get shelfs this weekend, living in this house a year this weekend..), adding nice pictures of birds in my agenda and getting distracted by Facebook.

"red berries, black hole, green duckweed" by Walter Mason in 2007

Monday my design for a Pagi-Sore batik finally went in a package on its way to Jakarta, indonesia. I will add photos of the painting and the making of soon. Read more about it in the blogpost "Making paper look like fabric".
I like to start this year with not a post about history, then again everything that is documented is already history, but with something new and temporary. In this new year next to Batik and Dutch (colonial) history and folkart, I will be making posts about Temporary Art. This fine example is made by Germany based artist Walter Mason. Found a post about it on the site Recycl Art. Inspiration to feed your recycling mind! Just what I need on a day like today. It's always difficult to re-start after you finished something you worked on that long. It's also the feeling of being satisfied for a moment, but all artists know this never last long...
Back to Walter Mason. He makes land art, with almost graphical feel to it. After he makes it, he then let nature do the erasing. In these photos with a little help by a brick.

Land Art is becoming the new graffiti. Sunday someone told me that in a TV program they interviewed a man making stone-carpets in the forest. He just collected stones and when he had enough he made a little piece of art. People in the village where telling each other that they should walk there and there when walking the dog, to see more of these artworks!

In the late 1960s and early 1970s Land Art was a quite popular art form from the US. Still a lot of great epic Land Art is made, but it had a bit of a taking-themselves-very-serious feel to it. I always have ideas for making temporary art statements, but I never quite make them. Maybe 2012 will be a good year for recycling ideas, or finally execute them and getting back to nature.

"Buttercups" by Walter Mason in 2007

More Land Art by Walter Mason on his photostream Meandermind

Little Red Riding Hood, where are you going?

2011-12-29T04:57:00.000-08:00

Little Red Riding Hood-Batik, unsigned, based on design by Lien Metzelaar

Reading three, no four books and an essay about the influence of the Netherlands on Indonesia, and visa versa, during the colonial time. First of I'm apparently interested in the same things artist where interested in during the beginning of the 19th century.
I quote:
"In the Netherlands at the turn of the 20th century, Dutch artists were inspired by batik as a technique and by its patterns as a part of a general new wave of Orientalisme in European art. It was used by applied art movements to revive Western art, which had been neglected in favour of industrial mass-produced decorative objects. Artists such as Carel Lion Cachet, Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof, Johan Thorn Prikker, Chris Lebeau, Agathe Wegerif and Bertha Bake designed room screens, book covers and wall paper, among other objects havng to do with interior design and functionality, and were part of the Art Nouveau or 'Nieuwe Kunst' movement of that time. This movement looked for inspiration in batik techniques and motifs, and all these developments resulted in a growing appreciation of batik as a form of art."

Can I ever think of anything new in this life time, haha...But seriously, this shows that Batik had a direct influence on our art scene. The quote is from the essay "Collectors Collected: Exploring Dutch colonial culture through the study of batik" by Daan van Dartel, published by and filled with batiks from the Tropenmuseum. Very interesting and very helpful, so more information from that will definitely follow in next posts.

Sitting in Museum Nusantara I was reading some information about how Nusantara developed from a royal academy for engineers and colonial civil servants to a museum about the cultural treasures, history, religion and traditions of the Indonesian archipelago. In it the "Wereldtentoonstelling" is mentioned. "The "Koloniale Wereldtentoonstelling van 1883" ("International Colonial and Export Exhibition) was a colonial exhibition (a type of World's Fair) that was held in Amsterdam. The event drew at least a million visitors and was the first international colonial exhibition, with 28 different nations presenting their colonial trade and wealth."
Sitting there drinking my coffee and enjoying eating spekkoek I was thinking: "Don't I own a book about that?".
Well I don't own a book about that, but I do own a book about 'De Nationale Tentoonstelling van Vrouwenarbeid in 1898'. The book with the title "Feministische openbaarheid" is about how the exhibition gave attention to the limited job options women had and under which harsh conditions the female workers earned their living around that time. The "Tentoonstelling" lasted 3 months filled with exhibitions, conferences and demonstrations of crafts. They even had a reconstructed Indonesian Kampong with music and dance performances and of course there was a room filled with Javanese Batiks, Batik Belanda and imitations prints from a cotton print factory (in Haarlem?).
I remember buying this book. I was in this totally too cool bookshop in Amsterdam and I didn't wanted to leave the shop empty-handed when I saw this book on the discount table. I was still very into our feministic history, because I graduated with a thesis about feminism and women in Art called "What a Art-girl needs to know, Women's Art and Society from 1900 until now" and bought a lot of books about this subject. So I bought it, but never really read it, until now.

In "Vertrouwd en vreemd: ontmoetingen tussen Nederland, Indië en Indonesië", which I'm also reading, they use information from the book above to show that there was a lot of criticism from the Netherlands concerning Batik Belanda. Madam G.A.N. van Zuylen-Tromp (no relation to Eliza van Zuylen) found Batik Belanda of such bad quality that the traditional Batik had to be protected from its influence. The inspiration and motifs used in Batik Belanda were of no meaning and only based on fashion. The European influence "corrupted" and "degenerate" the East Indian Batik industry.
Ow I'm enjoying this so much, it's like reading a soap opera of real fact & fury

Another nice thing I came across in "Vertouwd en vreemd", which I bought because it contain an article "Little Red Riding Hood in Batik, From Batik Belanda to Batik Hokokai" by Amy Wassing, is that "Eliza (van Zuylen) copied and bought motifs from other Batikworkshops". Aha!

So lets go back to the start, I will tell you more as the story unravels. Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in a village near the forest. Whenever she went out, the little girl wore a red riding cloak, so everyone in the village called her Little Red Riding Hood.

All this reading started with the batik I saw at Museum Nusantara, the Little Red Riding Hood-batik. This batik is a very good and clear example of the Western influence on Batik. A French fairytale to warn you to never talk to strangers and keep your knowledge to yourself because the big bad wolf might be outsmarting you (and don't lose your virginity to a sweet talker, but that's a different explanation of the story) ends up on a batik in Indonesia around 1905.

The more I read about the colonial time, "tempo doeloe", I realize people don't change. A lot of the choices made were and still are based on greed, jealousy and ego. Eliza van Zuylen is pointing her finger at Maria Paulina Carp calling her a thief, while Eliza is copying and buying designs from other Batikmakers herself. And this Little Red Riding Hood-Batik was such a design, copied by every big player in the Batikmarket.

"Very European style sarong with Little Red Riding Hood fairytale. The red coloured "kepala" is filled with a bouquet, butterflies and little flowers. In the "badan" Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf are shown twice standing underneath a tree with above it birds and butterflies flying."
Description of the Little Red Riding Hood-Batik in the collection of Tropenmuseum, maker unknown.

Batikexpert Harmen Veldhuizen tells in "Batik Belanda" that Carolina Josephina von Franquemont started with the fairytale batiks. Von Franquemont was the first women as far as known to start her own Batikworkshop. She started age 23 and in 1845 opened her Batikworkshop nearby Semarang. She mostly concerned with developing new dyes and designing new patterns for her sarong, it's unknown if she made batik herself.
For her patterns she used motifs from the Dutch craft magazine Aglaja. She even got the exclusive right by the publisher to do so. By enlarging, rearranging and combining, she created a totally new batik style.
Von Franquemont died in 1867. After that her house and belongings were sold sold by public auction, showing that she had a well-paid business. This inspired other Indo-European women to start their own Batikworkshop.

In 1903 till 1906 more than 20 Batikworkshops were listed in Pekanlogan with European names. This is also when the stealing and copying started. The competition was strong between the workshops. You mostly work on commission and if someone's design was very popular, it was easier to make money by copying that design than stick to your own. To protect their designs, Batikmakers started signing their works (see also my post about Maria Paulina Carp "Give honor to whom it’s due".
But this didn't stop the copying at all. Batiks are still made building on motifs by famous Batik Belanda entrepreneurs.

Maybe Von Franquemont started the fairy tale trend, but I think it's Lien Metzelaar's Little Red Riding Hood (LRRH) design that is probably the one that got imitated. Looking online I found three similar Batiks as the one from Museum Nusantara. One is by Lien Metzelaar from around 1905. The background motif on the badan, called bilik or gedekan, is exactly the same as the Nusantara-batik. The one at the Tropenmuseum shows a different motif on the background, also the face of LRRH is a bit crooked. It looks like the "Metz" version has more detail, but it hard to say if you can't see the real deal.
I also found Eliza van Zuylen's LRRH Batik and read that after Lien Metzelaar died, Madam J.C. van Ardenne-Simonet bought her Batikworkshop and designs including LRRH in 1918. They all look so similar...The way she is standing underneath the tree, with a red hat, more than a red hood, the wolf coming from behind. Who was the fist to draw it like that?

One theory is that freelance artists, 'tukung sungging', drew copies of book illustrations and sold them to Batikworkshops. This could be the reason why identical patterns appear in batiks from different Batikmakers. If the LRRH-batik is based on a book illustration from around 1900 and you'll find that illustration you will know which design came first. Well I looked up about a hundred roodkapjes, rötkapchen and le petit chaperon rouge from 1830 till 1908, but found no match, yet.

The story continues...

Opening "Sarongs van naam. Design in batik 1880-1940"

2011-12-29T03:07:00.000-08:00

Saturday 17 december a special textile exhibition "Sarongs van naam. Design in batik 1880-1940" started at Museum Nusantara in Delft. The exhibition contains very special and high quality Batiks made by Indo-European and Eurasian entrepreneurs.

The exhibition opened with a Gamelan-concert by Gamelan group Marsudi Raras. For 30 years they rehears on the more than 200 year old Gamelan at Museum Nusantara. Every Saturday you can attend their rehearsals from 11.30h till 14h. They have a short break now and they will start the rehearsals on 14 January 2012.

Assistent curator Louise Rahardjo gave a short speech about making the exhibition and her special clothing. She was wearing clothing that was traditional for Dutch women in the colonial time. When they arrived in Indonesia, their corsets and petticoats didn't combined very well with the tropical climate. They started wearing the traditional Batik as a sarong with a white kebaya. Louise Rahardjo was wearing a beautiful sarong. I photographed it when I visited her, see blogpost "Interview with Assistant curator" . The Batik belonged to her Indochinese grandmother who wore it at her wedding. The kebaya was from her Dutch great-grandmother who wore it in Indonesia.

It's a great exhibition for people who love Batik and for those who want to learn more about it. I saw so many Batiks I only know from books, great! In January more information about the Batiks separately will be added. So I'll keep you posted about that. Also I will be re-visting the exhibition. Louise will be sharing more information about the Batiks. She did a lot of research and I'm looking forward to hear what she discovered & learned.

Very beautiful bright red Batik with fine detailed peacocks, I can imagine this was a bestseller

Batik filled with good fortune: horseshoes, dice and symbols of playing cards

Chinese style Batik with cranes and reed

This Batik looks unfinished, with one red dye wash. The birds look like Metz-birds ("Metz-vogeltje"). Lien Metzelaar had a great influence on Batik. She was the first to make big changes in the motifs, like the simplified single standing flower bouquet that started Batik Buketan. More about Lien Metzelaar in my upcoming post about the Little Red Riding Hood-Batik

Found a Batik with water-lilies and also a very pretty one. This one shows the Chinese influence on Batik. Cranes in a salmon pink lake full of water lilies with typical Chinese style butterflies flying above it. The Batik from Pekalongan around 1930 is signed by Go Tjan Liem. (see blogpost "Water lilies & table linen")

In my next post I will be telling more about a very special new item that is shown at the exhibition. A Little Red Riding Hood-Batik. In my previous post I say it's signed by Elize Zuylen, but that's not true, my mistake. It isn't signed and the maker is unknown. Copying each others work played an important role in the Batik Belanda fairytale.

Give honor to whom it’s due

2011-12-13T05:48:00.000-08:00

Detail from a Batik signed by Maria Paulina Carp

Saturday 17 december a special textile exhibition "Sarongs van naam. Design in batik 1880-1940" starts in Museum Nusantara in Delft.
The exhibition including Batik Belanda among which a very special new collection item, a Little Red Riding Hood-Batik signed by Elize Zuylen.
I interviewed Assistant curator Louise Rahardjo when the exhibition was still in its early stages of choosing the right Batiks for display.
She also told me about the Little Red Riding Hood-Batik, but it wasn't sure if the museum would get the Batik, so I couldn't share the information with you.
I saw a Little Red Riding Hood-Batik in, I think it was the Batik museum in Pekalongan. I wasn't allowed to make pictures there. I know that I came in a room full of Batiks on wooden-displays. On my left I saw a Batik which I immediately liked. The guide laughed, I was liking Batik Belanda. On the other side of this Batik was the Little Red Riding Hood-Batik.
I felt a bit silly. Not only did I liked the Batiks made by Dutch hands more, or better said, its easier for me to like them, because I understand them. And that was the whole reason "we" interpreted Batik and made our own readable ones. In short, I felt like a Dutch colonist. Fortunately I learn more about Batik and my history everyday.

With the upcoming exhibition on Batik Belanda I thought: This is a good moment to share the Batiks made by Maria Paulina Carp. In August I visited the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam to document these Batiks. I was invited to give a presentation about my journey to Batik at the Indische Huiskamer in Eindhoven. I met madam Rosielle-Bergsma, the granddaughter of Maria Paulina Carp. She told me about the Batiks she gave to the Tropenmuseum. I decided to surprise her and ended my presentation with photos of Carp's Batiks.

These Batiks by Carp are getting more and more interesting. Madame Rosielle-Bergsma told about her grandmother during the presentation. Apparently Maria Paulina Carp was at the time competing with Elize van Zuylen.
Elize van Zuylen claimed Carp stole her designs. This maybe explains why in the information I got from the Tropenmuseum they say: "The five signed Batik that survived show no own style, they are rather imitation of Indo-European works".
I was surprised when I saw these beautifully made Batiks before me. The conservator of the Tropenmuseum agreed with me, how can they say that about these Batiks. But at the time I didn't know that Carp was already accused by van Zuylen around 1900. I thought the experts concluded this later about the Batiks.

To find out more I visited the library of the Textielmuseum in Tilburg. Great library by the way. The librarian asked me why I was there, so I told about my blog and she knew it. So I didn't dare to touch anything at first, haha.
The quote about Carp's Batiks is from the book "Fabric Of Enchantment" (in the book they say six Batiks instead of five). Love to own this book, but I don't, but the Textielmuseum does, so there I was.

Maria Paulina Carp was the only, as far as known, Javanese Batikworkshop owner with a European name in Pekalongan. After 1860 Pekalongan became the most important production place for Indo-European Batiks, better know as Batik Belanda. The original Batik Pekalongan changed to fit the Indo-European market. The Indo-European Batikmakers introduced signing their designs, which makes it quite easy now to trace the maker. Although they signed their designs a lot of imitations where made. The so called "Peranakan entrepreneurs" copied famous or popular patterns. Copyright didn't exist yet.

The Batiks from Pekanlongan changed, become more western. The original "Pesisir bang biru" ("Red-blue batik from the waterside"/Coastal Batik) was interpreted in different shades of blue and red. The light coloured bang-biru's didn't resemble the original ones at all.
Also more straight lines and a division of the surface like seen in wallpaper was introduced in the designs. And last but not least Batik Buketan was created.
All three examples are nicely represented in Carp's Batiks. Which makes her the perfect new style Batik Pekalongan maker or a very good, "to perfection" as they say in "Fabric of Enchantment", imitator.
Probably Rens Heringa and Harmen Veldhuisen (the authors of the book) are right, but reading about Maria Paulina Carp I can't help but wonder if her being Javanese and all had anything to do with it.
The designs of Batik and the patterns used, tell something about the maker and the wearer. You can "read" from which area the Batik is. You can read what kind of plants grow there, what occupation they have, if they're rich, what their origin is and much more. Patterns are copied to explain this. By using the same pattern and design the right information is shared.
What made doing this so different around 1900. Is it something western to claim "this is ours"? Typing this, I'm already thinking: "Yes, of course!". How many times did we invade countries and claimed it to be ours..silly me..

The Indo-European where the first to sign their works. Before that the design of a Batik had to tell you where it was made, not the signature. The designs made by Indo-European Batikmakers where based on the original Batiks made in Pekalongan. Traditional background motifs were incorporated into the new designs, but the patterns lost their meaning, probably because they didn't know what it that meaning was. The "kraton" patterns like "Kawung" and "Parang Rusak" were adjusted for a larger market. Before that these motifs were meant only for royalty. So how original were the designs to start with?

This dark and light blue Batik is a nice example of authentic motifs with western influence. The oblique lines are found in a lot of Batik and usually for the base of the Batik. I read somewhere that its called "drizzle". I remembered it because I found it strange that a pattern is called after a kind of rain in such a sunny country. The center of the Batik, "kepala", is filled with a french style motif. Birds and butterflies flying around wine baskets.
France had always, and still has, a big influence in fashion and lifestyle. Copying the french vogue in clothing, decorating and our interior. Apparently we even took the french style to Java.
Art Nouveau (during 1890–1910) pattern were adopted in Batik. Batikmakers used postcards and books to make their new designs. A. J. F. Jans made a Batik with orchids based, most likely, on a design by William Morris. I made a wallpaper (see Orchidee, zeefrduk op papier & behang) based on that Batik, its quite funny considering that it probably was a William Morris wallpaper design.

Typical Batik Buketan in both colour and motif. Really beautiful how the colours are still so vibrant. Nice contrast between de dark/light red and the white with the pastel flowers on it. This colour combination was and still is very popular in Batik Buketan (see also blogpost Batik Buketan).

I think this is based on the original Batik from Pekalongan, "Pesisir bang biru". I don't know how much is changed or added in the design to make it more western. If you have more information, please let me know!

This last one will classify as a Batik Belanda based om Delftware. I'm learning more about Delftware to find out how Delftware influenced Batik and what is incorporated in the pattern. In Delft I went looking for Delftware (see blogpost A quest in Delft part II, haven't got any answers yet, only found more beautiful things with interesting histories.
In this Batik the Delftware influence is clear in the use of colour. A white background, "badan", with the pattern in light and dark blue. The flowers look like carnations with butterflies and moths buzzing around it. The "kepala" is dark blue based with a white and light blue pattern similar to the design of the first Batik. Flower garlands growing out of boo-shaped wine baskets while birds fly around carrying branches.

It's unknown how long Maria Carp's Batikworkshop was open. Only five or six Batiks remain, four of them are at the Tropenmuseum and one is in a private collection. The Batik in the private collection looks a lot like the "Pesisir bang biru" Batik above.

Of course I will be attending the opening Saturday at Museum Nusantara in Delft and give you a report here on De reis naar Batik!

New Dutch traditions

2011-12-05T07:20:00.000-08:00

Smarter cloths worn after work from Staphorst/Rouveen, as worn on "Prinsjesdag" versus modern koto , as worn for Keti Koti, the annual celebration commemorating the abolition of slavery (2010).

Went to Arnhem last week to visit the exhibition "Sweet Wilderness" by Surya de Wit. She just finished the art academy and already filled a room with beautiful new work. The following day I had an appointment in the Nederlands Openluchtmuseum.
This museum is best know for its folkloric park filled with typical Dutch historic houses and farms. In Summertime they show how the occupants lived and where dressed. I was never a big fan of our folkcostumes, but with my new found interest for Dutch folkart and traditions, I have found a new perspective towards the subject.

Frida Kahlo is being seen as an exotic, authentic artist. Because she is folkloristic, wears the traditional national folkcostume, is fascinated and inspired by her history and roots. If you do the same in the Netherlands (wear wooden shoes and a lace cape, know your Dutch history & traditions) they think you are hopelessly rigid, old-fashioned and boring. But I start to think that this isn't true.
Vikings, Spaniards and the VOC flooded our country with chaos, gold & other riches. While doing so they influenced us with all this different cultures.
Nowadays we're busy with what is typical Dutch, protecting our little country from cultures abroad.
But what is typical Dutch? Do we even know? Have we forgotten?
It's nothing more than a vague memory of a farmers life back in the day filled with Burgundian happiness (in Dutch we say: "gezelligheid").
I'm not saying we should all start wearing wooden shoes and make a circle and do a clog-dance. what I'm trying to say is that we have a history in which we are influenced by so many cultures, and that is fantastic, fascinating and thrilling, and why not embrace that and find out what influenced us and why.

I had an appointment to get more information about sand- and flowercarpets. On my site is a bit more about that (in Dutch, see www.sabinebolk.nl post De reis naar Batik. I will address this subject later on my blog. The Nederlandse Openluchtmuseum have a very interesting collection of folkcostumes and folkart. I contacted them and recieved an email that they had 30 photos of sandcarpets and sandcarpetmakers. Also they had a film in their collection by D.J. van der Ven. A very intersting man, I will make a blogpost about him soon. A few weeks back a ordered a filmfragment about the flowercarpet made during the procession in Asselt-aan-de-Maas and it turned out to be the same, so know I know the maker!

After the appointment me & Koen had some time left so we visited the park and we found a very beautiful exhibition in the basement of the entree-building. The exhibition is called "Kleur Bekennen in streekdracht en kotomisi" (translated: "Show our colours in folkcostumes and Kotomisi/Koto").

Overview exhibition "Kleur bekennen" at the Nederlands Openluchtmuseum

In 1969 the NV Billiton Maatschappij donated 8 Surinamese kotos to the "Collection of Queen Wilhelmina". This collection was managed by the Nederlands Openluchtmuseum. But the Koto's were never on display. The management found that the clothing didn't fit in a museum about Dutch culture. Suriname was then still part of the Koninkrijk der Nederlanden. Nowadays wearing koto is a way for Dutch women from Afro-Surinamese origin to show their identity. The Openluchtmuseum decided to show their colours and gave the kotos a prominent place in their collection.

There are different stories about how the Kotomisi tradition started. Dutch plantation owners would have forced their slaves to wear covering clothing. So Koto is being seen as a painful legacy.
Another story tells that Kotomisi developed after the ending of slavery in 1863. The Koto got its characteristic form after 1879 when it got forbidden to walk around shirtless. The short wide yak become fashion and the skirt got its enormous size.

In "Kleur bekennen" they show the Dutch folkcostumes next to the kotos. With video projections Dutch and Surinamese women tell why they wear folkcostumes. In the Surinamese community it's becoming more popular, but in the Dutch society it's almost extinct.
Reasons that it got extinct are: people become more mobile and visited other regions, in WWII it was difficult to get fabrics for making costumes, there were very strict rules for mourning-clothing and it took a long time to get dressed.
In some places in the Netherlands folkcostumes are still worn, but mostly for special occasions and tourism.

In 1675 the Dutch East India Compony (VOC) began importing brightly coloured chintz ("sitsen") from India. This yak is from around 1750-1775 from the Zaanstreek.

Thanks to Roman K. with his great blog FolkCostume & Embroidery I know what these are. I helped him translated some Dutch info about "koplappen/kroplappen". Read more about it in his post about "Costume of Volendam, North Holland, The Netherlands".

Oorijzer/‘ear iron’, a gold, silver or copper band with decorative ends used to secure a woman’s cap on her head

Tradition folkcostume from Princehage, 1950

Her Koto reminded me of Oost-Indisch bont. I wrote about it in the blogpost "Checkmate"

Yaki/ yak from Koto

Angisa's, textile with a message. The origin of this folded head cloth lies in West Africa. The way the head cloth is folded gives expression the the feeling of the wearer. Sometimes it's a silent for of protest or a way to show happiness. This one means: "Call me on my cellphone".

Interview with Assistant curator of Museum Nusantara Louise Rahardjo

2011-11-25T01:14:00.000-08:00

by Sabine Bolk
translated & re-written by Yvonne Bolk (thanks a million!)

Louise Rahardjo holding Batik signed by Elize Zuylen (more about this Batik on the end of this blogpost)

Sabine: Tell me something about yourself, who are you, how old are you?

Louise: My name is Louise Rahardjo. I was born in Leiden in 1986. My mother is Dutch and my father is Indonesian of Chinese origin. In Indonesia he is considered Chinese. I grew up in Delft and the Hague. My parents had an Indonesian restaurant, we were always surrounded by a lot of people from Indonesia there. So I have been in contact with the culture, but we, me and my two brothers and sister, had a Dutch upbringing. That is the atmosphere I grew up in.

Sabine: From which part of Indonesia is your father?

Louise: Central Java, Salatiga, north of the Merapi.

Sabine: Do you speak Indonesian?

Louise: I have become more fluent because I study Indonesian now, but before I could only speak “Pasar Malaysian”: “yes” and “no” and “I would like”.

Sabine: “The food is delicious”.

Louise: Yes, always about the food and everything to do with food.

Sabine: Next question: how do you become a curator? Are you a student?

Louise: Yes, the study was officially called Languages and Cultures of South East Asia and Oceania. It is broader than just Indonesia. They have shortened the name to Languages and Cultures of Indonesia.
I am doing my Master’s now, it is called Indonesian Studies. In it I follow the ASEP track: ASEAN Society, Economics and Politics. ASEAN stand for Associations for Southeast Asian Nations, like a European Union in Asia, but in it’s infancy.

Sabine: Is it in English?

Louise: Yes, the master is in English and if all students speak Indonesian it is in Indonesian, when History and students from Vietnam join us, the classes are in English.

Sabine: What are the subjects?

Louise: During Bachelor you have regular subjects as language and culture, Indonesian and Javanese. In History you learn about re-colonial, colonial and post-colonial history. There is also religion: Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. Culture and Media shows how it is all woven together in Indonesia, what is censured and what is not. Other subjects are Politics, Law and Government.

Sabine: Are you free to choose a subject, a part of history you are interested in?

Louise: No, not during Bachelor, more so during Masters. A few years ago there were four directions to choose from, due to cutbacks it is linguistic, art-history or economics now. I have chosen economics.

Sabine: Ecomomics? But you are here?

Louise: Yes, but that happened by accident. When we were living in the Hague my parents became friends with our neighbours across the street. The wife was curator of Nusantara. Her daughter (Amy Wassing), who is 10 years my senior, is curator now. She followed the same studies I am doing now. We met by chance in the railway station about a year ago. We were both in a hurry, but had a short conversation. She wanted to cut her hours after having her twins and needed someone to cover for her for one year. After our brief encounter she thought: well, Louise would make a good assistant”. And that is how I got into this.
I am very interested in the cultural historical background of Indonesia, I just think my future lies more in a social economical future. It is more alive, and broader. Especially because I might like to work with Foreign Affairs or United Nations and international relations. So, for my future career my choice of study is better and as you can see this job satisfies my art historical side.

Sabine: In future, would you like to work in the Netherlands or in Indonesia or in a job that would have you travel back and forth?

Louise: It could be both. I would like to work abroad for a few years and here for a few years. It all depends on how my future evolves. I really do like it here in the museum. Before I thought it would be a bit lame and dull, but it is definitely not so. It is a very positive experience, so who knows, I might stay on a bit longer before going abroad (laughing).

Sabine: What does your work as assistant curator encompasses?

Louise: Assisting the curator. In general I just select all emails addressed to the curator. Which ones can I answer which ones not? In general it concerns questions about the collection. “Can we see this or that?” “Can you give more information about this”. There are some objects I can not tell much about, so those questions I forward to the curator. If people request to see objects in our depot, I make an appointment. During the appointment I am always there when objects are looked at, described and photographed. That is one of my jobs. Another job concerns the collection here in the museum itself. At the moment I am working on a textile change. It is cooperation with the curator, but she works from home, so she is far away from the actual collection.
The textile collection will be changed in December, so now I am working with Batiks. Batik Balanda and Chinese Batiks will be next.

Sabine: So they will be replacing the Ikats? Interesting!

Louise: The Ikats have been on display since March and because of the light the fabrics become more fragile. We have made it darker, but they cannot be exposed to light for too long.

Sabine: That is what they told me in the Tropen Museum (Royal Tropical Institute/KIT). They only have 1 or 2 Batiks on display. I was told that you have to replace them every 6 months and then you have to have the manpower to do that.

Louise: That is why I am here. For example the Wayang Willem display case. Before there was one line and I adjusted that and added a second line. Little things like that. The curator doesn’t have the time right now, so it is up to me. I have to say it is very nice and that display case is really part of me.

Sabine: Are you selecting the Batiks as well? Or do you consult with the curator?

Louise: She explained the concept and I am now pre-selecting the Batiks. This one seems good for display, this one we can tell a story about, but with a theme running through the selection. The next step is deciding together how we are going to display them, which ones we really select. I have some influence, but in the end the curator makes the final decision.

Sabine: So she is curator as well as custodian in this museum? She also handles exhibitions and the themes of displays?

Louise: Yes indeed. We do not have room for so many functions.

Sabine: Interesting. So it is an all in one job?

Louise: It is all in one. We are now dependent on the city council. There are plans to become more independent as Heritage Delft. To bring a different structure involving curators and custodians. So it will change, but not for a few years.

"Wayang Willem", on display at Museum Nusantara

Sabine: What is your favourite piece in the collection and would you like to specialise in it? Or are you already specialising?

Louise: At the moment the Wayang Willem case is my favourite, because I have been working on it quite al lot lately. I think it is a nice mix between East and West. They look like traditional dolls, but they are absolutely western. If you look carefully you find Indonesian traits in the dolls. I like that because I have become attached to Delft and its history and William of Orange. Wayang Willem tells his life story. We are right across the Prinsenhof where William of Orange lived and was murdered. The Prinsenhof is also part of Heritage Delft.

I also like the ancestral statuettes and the Krisses and the mysticism behind them. Looking at a Kriss really closely is very exiting.

Sabine: Do you believe they have a soul?

Louise: I do believe there is something. Not from personal experience, but things have happened in my family. For example: in 1991 my father was in hospital the day before my birthday. We visited and stayed for a long time. Coming home we found the house broken into and although the burglar had all the time in the world and it was a very quiet neighbourhood. He didn’t even took the portable phone from the hallway. He never went past the hall cabinet and my father believes it is because he kept a Kriss there. Even the police were puzzled. Usually my father put the Kriss on his side of the bed when he went abroad. It scared my mother, but he did it for her protection. So I do believe in the power, but can’t feel it or prove it.

Chinese cabinet filled with Batiks collected by Louise's mother

Sabine: Do you have Chinese Indonesian Batiks in your collection and are they easier to read or do you prefer them? I have that with Batik Belanda, they pop out, I get them at once.

Louise: I grew up with many regular Javanese Batiks. Yesterday I visited my mother to look at some Batiks. She has a large Chinese cabinet filled with Batiks and it is stuffed with Javanese, Chinese and Indo-European Batiks. When I saw the Javanese I thought regular Batik. But when I saw the Chinese ones from Lasem, the one with the red or the one with a lot of blue, yellow and pink, or the one with a lot of decoration, flowers and motives, I thought, that is my special Batik.

Chinese Batiks from the collection from Louise's mother

Sabine: Will there be new objects added, or is the collection complete?

Louise: Many people contact us with a request to donate. It might sound strange, a request to donate, but our depot is pretty much full and there are strict rules. If you accept something for a museum, you cannot just dispose of it later. We are not allowed to take thing from the depot for auction or to throw out. So before you accept something for the museum, we have to make sure what value it has for the collection and whether it is indeed something special.
We also have to check how many of certain items we already have. If someone offers us spears from a certain island and we already have 20 or 30 of them, we decline. Even when it is an interesting object we have to consider that we have no room in our depot and expanding is costly. Therefore we have to disappoint the donators. That is difficult, they have nice things, but you can’t accept them. Sometimes people offer us mass produced things from after WOII, these can be nice, but aren’t interesting enough for a museum. The fial decision to accept something I leave to the curator. Sometimes I think: interesting and I’m right, but often enough I am wrong.

Sabine: Is this addressed during your studies?

Louise: We do have the classes art and material culture. It gets some mention, but not much. In A different Master study you can learn how to determine whether a Chinese wedding chest is really old or not. How you can tell, for instance by looking at the wood structure, whether the wood has been made to look old or is really old.

Sabine: But you must be developing a eye for it now?

Louise: Yes indeed. Whenever I handle an object now I know sooner.

There is a plan to describe all objects as precise as possible and to make better photographs, but that is for the future. We have hundreds of Batiks here, all documented but not yet photographed.
We are very open and liberal if people have questions about our collection or related subject.

Sabine: I couldn’t agree more!

Louise: One of the first things I asked you was “are there certain Batiks you would like to see, email me”.

Sabine: Indeed, but I don’t know what you have in your collection yet and I intend to come and have a look. I do have a broad interest.
I do want see everthing, but as soon as there are some Batiks on display I will most certainly come see them.

Batik from the collection of Louise's mother

The opening of the textile exhibition with the special Indo-European and Indo-Chinese Batiks is on Saturday 17 december. For more information visit www.nusantara-delft.nl.

Read more about & see more of Museum Nusantara in my previous blogpost "Museum Nusantara in Delft".

The Batik Louise Rahardjo is holding in front of her is singed by Eliza van Zuylen (left upper corner). Eliza van Zuylen is one of the most famous Indo-European Batik Belanda makers from Pekalongan.
This particularly Batik was worn by Indo-European women during the wedding ceremony. THis kind of blue & white Batiks were worn by Indo-Chinese women as mourning wear and the deceased was also dressed in blue & white.
Later this tradition was interpreted by Indo-European women. After their marriage they saved the blue & white Batik and wear it during funerals and as mourning wear. They were buried in their blue & white wedding Batik.

Making paper look like fabric

2011-11-24T07:53:00.000-08:00

Acting a bit top secret about my new work in process, hope to tell you all about it soon. So much is coming together, synchronicity is hitting me in the face all the time. And this makes it difficult to share it, in such a fragile state. What if it doesn’t look the way I planned..sooo for now some synchronicity back in time.

Looking for some old photo’s, I came across work from 2006. Wondering if I’m ever going to make something new..! Haha!
First work I made about making paper look like fabric and visa versa. The drawings are one on one copies of my clothing combined with the real clothing. The working title was Clothes make the woman (naar het Nederlandse gezegde, kleren maken de man).

I had such fun making these pictures. The quality of the photos aren’t that good and I still regret not showing them like little (big) installations. Fortunately my work developed a lot since then, and I think I’m closer to what I really want to make now, and allow myself to make it, then I was then. I was a bit torn between the art institution and my own, yet to develop, path!

I used my bedroom and garden as a studio. Making drawings of my clothing at school & the wallpapers at home on the kitchen table.

Always enjoying and never enjoying the work in process part. The making of is always exiting and also very scary. Normally when I finish a work in my studio, I don’t visit my studio for another three days. I’m never sure about the end result. With temporary installations on location I don’t have this luxury and it helps me to make fast decisions.

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Posted this on 21 december 2010 on my virtual residence blog. Putting the last layers of paint on the work I still didn't share fully. Only bits (birds) and pieces (Sunflowers), unfinished details, but not on my blogs.
When I'm finished painting, I have to transfer the painting on to tracing paper and send it by post to Indonesia. Where hopefully the Batik makers in Jeruk will use the design for a Batik.

Making fabric look like paper

2011-11-23T00:49:00.000-08:00

And making paper look like fabric. Preparing a new work in my mind. Thinking about how clothes are first drawn on paper before cutting the fabric. How Batik patterns are first drawn on paper before transferring it on to the cotton. How to make paper look like fabric in drawings (like the woodcut-prints below) , but at the same time make them look like they feel.

It's typical how Geisha in woodcut-prints always look like they are moving with such ease, the fabrics move smoothly around their bodies. It is actually quite hard to wear a kimono and move with grace. It heavy and the many layers are tightly bound around your body. It's like a corset and you can only make small steps.
Photo from 1890, Women Washing

Found this beautiful website Old Photos of Japan. The photo above shows women washing kimono's. It almost looks like they are applying wallpaper. For me this is very symbolic. I make works on wallpaper, but base the patterns mostly on fabric patterns. I don't use the wallpaper purely as wallpaper, it doesn't have to hang on a wall, it can hang like fabric like strokes. Like in my wallpaper installation The journey of Batik.

When Batik is presented they hang it on these beautiful wooden racks or hang it on the wall. Batik is made to wear, but it's used as decoration, as a piece of Art hanging on the wall, as a tablecloth, bedspread etc. Kimono's are considered as a thing to look at. Rich man use to buy beautiful, detailed made kimono's for their favorite Geisha. Kimono's have always been collected, hanged on a long wooden stick.

One of the reasons I work on paper, and especially wallpaper, is that it isn't bound by the rules of painting. I never framed my work, I'm planning to try it out, but it feels like I'm taking away their freedom. A canvas has to be hang on a wall. Paper can still move. A Batik or a Kimono can be worn, hang on a wall, used as a daily thing, but also be cherished like a piece of Art or collectors item.

Still don't know what I'm going to make, but like the think about paper acting as or being used as fabric, while it's based on fabric and so forth.

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Posted this after "Flower of the Sun" in december 2010 on my virtual residence blog.
I did frame one of my works for the exhibition "Paper in progress" (19 february till 27 march 2011 in Den Bosch). The work Bed rest has a really shocking red frame now. It works pretty well. This is a smaller work of mine and with the frame it's already very unhandy. So I think I mostly stick to rolling them papers up.
When I started this residence blog I was still looking for my way to communicate on De reis naar Batik. It became more open and personal after writing for the other blog. I noticed that for myself and my work it's helpful to write these blogposts. I'm thinking a lot about how to continue De reis naar Batik. I'm suppose to turn it more into a kind of research or is it good the way it is? Will a structure get formed on it's own? Maybe I need to make a new book? I don't know yet. But first I have to finish this work!

Flower of the Sun

2011-11-22T11:16:00.000-08:00

End of Summer 2010

The Sunflower is maybe the most used symbol for the Sun & also a symbol that everyone understands. For Dutch people the Sunflower represent the Sunflower fields in France and therefor their holiday full of Sun in France.

Vincent van Gogh made his Sunflower paintings while waiting for Gauguins arrival. He used them to brighten up the yellow house. Vincent was drawn towards the Sunlight and followed it to France. In many of his letters, he writes about the beautiful yellow aura the Sun creates around objects and how he tries to catch the light in his paintings. In his Sunflower paintings the Sun shines in the oils. It's bright and you almost feel the warmth coming towards you.

"Fifteen minutes of freedom" watercolour on paper, 2006

When I had a home with a garden, I always planted Sunflowers. You always want to have the biggest in your neighborhood and when the summer ends the dying Sunflowers bring life in your garden with a lot of different birds. I made one painting with Sunflowers in it called "Fifteen Minutes Of Freedom". My bird Batik was just living with me and escaped several times. The first time he escaped, he escaped for a total of 15 minutes and ended up balancing on the blinds. This image of his short freedom was so sad and I made this watercolour about it.

"Sunflower on the broken stone ground", Natural-dyed batik by Batik women of Jeruk (Lasem)

I remember sitting next to Koen in the car and seeing this big pile of dirt with on top a bright and happy Sunflower. I ask Koen "Where do Sunflowers come from originally?". We both didn't know and I forgot to look it up.

The Sunflower is a typical plant, it can grow on any kind of soil and turns his head towards the Sun. It's a strong, yet delicate plant. It's not only known for it's beauty, but also provides us with food & oil.

I always like it when subjects interests me and even more if I find synchronicity. The Sunflower, which reminds us of Vincent & the Sun, was first introduced in Europe by the Spanish sailors in 1530. Before that the Sunflower only grow in South and North-America. Around 1000 BC the Sunflower was domesticated. The Incas honored the Sunflower, for them it represented their Sun god. Big statues of Sunflowers and ornaments where found in their temples. The priests wear a crown that looked like a Sunflower.

The Sunflower is a much used subject in art, and maybe it should be a symbol for art and especially the artist. We grow and flourish under any kind of condition. Our ground maybe malnutrition, but we always turn our heads towards the future and better times. Art is not only beauty, it can also feed your mind and fill your thoughts. Let the Sunflower be our symbol for the survival of art and artists!

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Wrote this blogpost in December 2010 for my virtual art residence. The work I started making, inspired by Vincent van Gogh & staying in a "virtual caravan", is almost finished & full of Sunflowers. It's interesting for me after almost a year of working on this painting to read what inspired me to make it and everything I put in it this last year. I even planted Sunflowers and had to wait for them to be big enough to finish the painting.
This week I will share two more blogposts from my residence also about this work. It is almost finished, but it's still not finished at all. Becoming curious? During PindaKAAS Light I showed a preview of this work in progress, see blogpost "PindaKAAS Light in Tilburg"

A quest in Delft part II

2011-11-16T02:35:00.000-08:00

Room in 19th century style with furniture from the 17th century and a painting by Paul Tétar van Elven

I promised to find out more about how Delftware influenced Batik Belanda (see blogpost "Batik Buketan") and how our Delftware got influenced by the Chinese porcelain (see blogpost "A quest in Delft"). I haven't really found out much, only made a lot pictures of porcelain from Paul Tétar van Elven's collection. One thing I do know, I have to get me one of those porcelain sets myself. What a beautiful images are created on a plate. I can't imagine eating from it. They all tell little stories, which is similiar in Batik. But much more figurative and more like a comic almost.

Before telling more about the documented porcelain, I start with the scenery there placed in. The Paul Tétar van Elven Museum was once the home of the 19th century Academy painter and art collector Paul Tétar van Elven (1823 - 1869). Finding alternative places where Delftware is on display, this sounded as one of them. Next to the collection of his work: historic pieces, portraits and copies of the Old Masters, he had a large collection of oriental and Delft pottery.
The rooms of the house are decorated in the styles of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The museum boasts one of the top 100 best preserved interiors in the Netherlands. Some parts of the interior are authentic and some parts, like the wallpaper, are specially designed for this museum.

Detail of new imitation painted fabric wall decoration

The library walls are covered with gold-gilded leather from around 1700 (see picture) and imitation gold-gilded leather made from paper from the 19th century.

This gold-gilded leather is a wall decoration made of tanned leather (calfskin),pasted with silver leaf and covered with a golden-colored varnish.
When in 1628 a Dutch gold-gilded leather maker got a patent on making relief into the leather, new designs got popular like floral motifs, birds and cherub figures.
The same development happens in the Hindelooper motif, but much later according to my research I did so far.
In "Volkskunst der Lage Landen" the Hindelooper designs got more bold and filled with floral motifs, birds and cherub figures in the 18th century.
They believe that the Hindelooper folk art got influenced by the presents of the Dutch East India Company, more about that in my previous blogpost "Checkmate".
The funny thing is that the Dutch gold-gilded leather was transported to China and Japan. Maybe it was adapted to their preferences or maybe it was already based on asian motifs, I do not know.
In the 18th century, the much cheaper, wall decorations on fabric made it difficult for the gold-gilded leather industry to compete. The same is happing in Indonesia with Batik at the moment. Cheaper, printed imitation Batiks from China are taking over the market. It's difficult for Batikworkshops to compete, because the hand-made fabrics are much more expensive to make and therefore more expensive to buy.

Imitation gold-gilded leather made from paper from the 19th century

Paul Tétar van Elvan porcelain collection

Delftware tile with a painting of a Heron in the staircase to the loft

Chinese "Familie Rose" porcelain from the 18th century

Chinese "Familie Rose" porcelain from the 18th century

"Amsterdams bont"

The most interesting objects in the museum where in a cabinet on the first floor. These object weren't documented or studied, because there were "less interesting historically and of less quality". That figures, I go "ooh" and "aah' and the "experts" didn't even bother. The museum is run by volunteers and they are very kind and happy to give information. The volunteer couldn't tell me much about it, but she believed that most of the porcelain in the cabinet was "Amsterdams bont" and was used to eat from, instead of showing them of in a cabinet.

"Amsterdams bont" is porcelain imported from China and then (re)painted in Amsterdam. Also blue-white porcelain was repainted with a additional decoration. It was more expensive to do this in China, so they made it in amsterdam. The images are similar to the ones on the Chinese porcelain. "Amsterdams bont" is easily recognizable due to the second thicker layer of paint.

I like this "Amsterdams bont", because it has a childlikeness way of painting to it. The "experts" call it "lack of quality" I think, but I think it's now very interesting how and why they changed the authentic porcelain into a bolder, not coloring within the lines, Dutch porcelain. The bird on the plate above transformed into a Great Tit. They have this bird in China (I think), but I find it unlikely that they used him instate of some exotic bird to paint on to a plate. And here the Great Tit is one of the most exotic, in both character and color, birds we have.

"Amsterdams bont"

pigment for painting porcelain

Imari from 17th or 18th century

Imari from 17th or 18th century

Chinese "Familie Rose" porcelain

"Amsterdams" bont bowl

Japanese Imari porcelain

Imari from 17th or 18th century

Because I can't tell the difference between Japanese and Chinese Imari and worse the "experts" also can't tell the difference, the pictures with only "Imari" are from China or Japan.
The Imari history is a bit difficult. Who copied from who and why, started again with the Dutch East India Company. They bought porcelain from China and Japan, and of course where business is done, the best price wins. So Japan and China competed to sell their porcelain.

"We do not know what Paul Tétar van Elven thought about the colonies and other cultures. He properly saw the situation mainly from a commercial perspective. A woodprint from 1857 shows a parade in the streets of Delft of foreign students playing Gamelan. He was aware of the Indonesian culture, but he probably preferred Beethoven."
-freely translated from a review about an exhibition at the Paul Tétar van elven Museum

Trying to find out more about Batik, our folk art, different traditions, I can't avoid a certain subject no longer. We, Dutch people, got pretty good at it. This time of year when "Sinterklaas" and his Black Piets are running around the streets, it's not a popular subject, but also a very popular one: Our history and what we did with it. Most of it is based on ego, and never anything good can come from actions based on ego. Reading and trying to read around it everything comes back to the same starting point, the same base, the one thing we share. The Dutch East India Company (Dutch: "Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC").
At Secondary School, HAVO, I graduated with the profile Culture and Society, also known as the fun package. In my fun package was geography, history, art and art history. Our history exam was about the Dutch East Indies. I didn't liked how it was taught to us. Our Golden Age, our fame and glory, all the ego, wanting more, wanting what wasn't ours to begin with. I thought it was very black and white. It was about the profit and never about the loss. If mankind had a more exploring nature then one that wants to conquer, our history would have looked a lot different.
But it doesn't, and we can keep trying to ignore it. We can't keep saying how the traditions we have, the things we make, the (folk)art are all genuine. Trying to hide our past, trying to avoid the subject. Feeling ashamed about it, putting history in a one sided light.
I don't really know a lot about the VOC time and I'm connecting the dots from my point of view. So if I'm historically wrong, or just wrong, please don't hesitate to correct me or help me with more information. I have to learn more about this part of my history. The things on my path, Batik Belanda, Delftware, Hindeloopen, and I even think the flowercarpets, have this history in common. It changed it, it created it, it blossomed from it. People did terrible things and on the other hand people created beautiful things. Somehow and most of the times these two are connected and the arteologist inside of me has to discover what those connections are.

Tripping over temporary carpets

2011-11-13T05:57:00.000-08:00

"Wood Circle" by Richard Long at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven

Wednesday I visited GLOW in Eindhoven with my mother. Because I still hadn't see the real "Wood Circle", I told my mother that if we were on time we should visit the Van Abbemuseum. I was convinced we wouldn't make it, but my mom is very determined. So four minutes before closing time we entered the museum and could still see the "Wood Circle".
I'm happy to say it's a beautiful, strong work. It's a bit crowded, I think the work needs more space. And seeing photos of the work in the woods, it feels a bit artificial indoors. But never the less; the flow, the feel and the mark he leaves is very strong, even indoors.

Detail "Wood Circle"

GLOW, International Forum of Light in Art and Architecture. This year was already the 6th edition with the theme ‘Illusion and reality’. The city center of Eindhoven turns into a forum of interventions, installations, performances and events based on the phenomena of artificial light.
We walked around the TU area and saw some nice strong projections and installations. We were walking back to the station when this work by "We make carpets" caught my eye.

"Glow carpet" by We make carpets at GLOW in Eindhoven

WE MAKE CARPETS consisting of three designers, Marcia Nolte, Stijn van der Vleuten and Bob Waardenburg. They use mass products like plastic forks, paperclips or band-aids (see photo below) to make temporary carpets.

Band-aid carpet at BKKC in Tilburg till 12 January 2012

For GLOW they used "glow in the dark" pebbles. At first I felt they could be competition for my work. It's a nice carpet, but also plain. Their designs are very graphical and they base their pattern on the material. This makes the shapes you can make limited. I wouldn't use a material that determines the pattern. With rice, lentils, beans, but also leaves, nuts, sunflower seeds and corn, I'm free to draw and create the pattern I had in mind. But on the other hand I wouldn't mind being challenged by using a man-made-mass product for a temporary carpet.

Because I make carpets I would like a collaboration with We make carpets someday.

Checkmate

2011-11-09T02:54:00.000-08:00

"Folk Art brings joy and therefore has to be seen. It's like a free bird, descending next to us, bringing us a little miracle."
- Hil Bottema

In my previous post "What kind of Boerenbont are you?" I found out that the new Boerenbont collection has an interesting pattern in it. The Gingham pattern was brought to Europe in the 17th century. That the word Gingham is based on ging-gang, or genggang, which means "striped" in the Malay language spoken in places such as Malaysia and Indonesia, where it is believed to have originated.

Reading in the book "Volkskunst der lage landen" last night I came across a description of a typical Hindeloopen interior back in the day. A fabric is used to decorate the windows & mantelpiece, it's called "Oost-Indisch bont" (East-Indian bold)...

Under cap made of Oost-Indisch bont, Hindeloopen

Well you'll never guess, it is the Gingham pattern and its even used in the Hindeloopen traditional clothing. I was reading that the Hindeloopen style of decorating furniture and all sorts of object (their Folk Art) changed a lot from the 17th till the 19th century. It is thought that Hindeloopen style was influenced by the East India Company. The VOC had a storage place there. They brought object like porcelain with them from their journeys. From India and very likely Indonesia the VOC imported fabrics like the chintz and the Oost-Indisch bont. How the paintings by the Hindeloopen are influenced by the fabrics or porcelain I don't know, but I'm planning to find out.

Chintz ('sitsen') is a floral motif cotton fabric imported from India by the VOC. At the Tropenmuseum they have a very nice example of it on display.

In 1675 the Dutch East India Compony (VOC) began importing brightly coloured chintz ("sitsen") from India. In the Netherlands they started to make imitations. This jacket ("jakje") is from the around 1817 closed cotton print factory "Overtooms welvaren" in Amsterdam.

More about Hindeloopen in the blogpost "Traditional Dutch".
More about Boerenbont & Gingham in "What kind of Boerenbont are you?".

Follow this line

2011-11-08T02:22:00.000-08:00

"A Line Made by Walking" (1967) by Richard Long

"If you came across this circle (Wood Circle) in a forest, you will know: Someone was here, this temporary structuring is the evidence of it."- Annabel Kuperus

I ordered the book "WOW" a few weeks ago. The proceeds went directly to the "Save an artwork" project. How is it possible to save an artwork AND get a very nice publication is beyond me, but I'm very happy with it.
In the book different people tell what they see, feel and think about the Wood Circle and why it's so important that it had to be saved. Fortunately they saved it, so you can enjoy the real deal at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven.

Olav Fakkeldij tells about another work by Richard Long, "A ten mile walk" (1968). This early work by Long is a walk in a straight line through meadows, over hedges and walls, through the forest and swampy grassland of Exmoor, England. Apparently the walk is very surrealistic, while climbing over a hedge, following the route, you'll see a gate just a few meters away. Halfway the walk the line exactly follows a primitive dam. It has to be planned like that otherwise you had to walk through a lake, so it's not just a straight line put on a map.

Book "WOW"

Richard's way of changing nature (by using what is already there), leaving a mark, making a route. A path, a walk, which you can follow and get closer to the artist, reminded me of the works I saw at the Museum of contemporary Aboriginal art (AAMU) in Utrecht. AAMU focus on modern Aboriginal Art. By supporting local artists in making permanent work, they keep their heritage alive for the next generation. The traditional Aboriginal Art was mostly very temporary and it wasn't preserved.

"Camel Creek/Gernawarliyany" (2005) by Paddy Bedford

"Indigenous Australian art (also known as Australian Aboriginal art) is art made by the Indigenous peoples of Australia and in collaborations between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians . It includes works in a wide range of media including painting on leaves, wood carving, rock carving, sculpture, ceremonial clothing and sandpainting."
From Wikipedia

In 1971–1972, art teacher Geoffrey Bardon encouraged Aboriginal people in Papunya, north west of Alice Springs to put their Dreamings onto canvas. These stories had previously been drawn on the desert sand, and were now given a more permanent form. The dots were used to cover secret-sacred ceremonies. The well-known dot paintings are actually a kind of maps. The Dreaming dot paintings stand for the "timeless time" of formative creation and perpetual creating. While creating the paintings they enter the dreamtime and let their hands "write" down what the ancestors tell them.

What the painting mean is not for us to know, but research showed that some of the paintings are actually maps. The paintings give a top/bird view of the landscape. Looking at the paintings with this in mind you can see how some dots create a river and maybe the other one is a line you should follow to get safely to the other side.

The works mentioned above are both very interesting paths to follow!

More about Richard Long on www.richardlong.org
More about AAMU on www.aamu.nl

What kind of Boerenbont are you?

2011-11-05T03:51:00.000-07:00

Article "Hoe bont ben jij?"/ "What kind of Boerenbont are you?" in the Viva, background wrappingpaper made bij Lief!

To start with, I helped save an artwork. A little bit of it at least. The Wood Circle by Richard Long is going to stay at the Van Abbemuseum in eindhoven. More about that in a later post.

Reading the Viva (Dutch magazine for grownup girls) I came across this quiz "What kind of Boerenbont are you?". Boerenbont is definitely a candidate for a Tradional Dutch blogpost. So here it is.

"Boerenbont is a traditional pattern used on pottery from the Netherlands. Translated from Dutch, "Boer" means farmer and "bont" refers to a mixture of colors. The distinctive floral pattern is hand-painted with simple brush strokes of red, yellow, green, and blue. Currently manufactured by Royal Boch in Belgium, the pattern originated as a local craft made by farmers’ wives in the 19th century. According to the Royal Boch website, a variety of patterns have followed the path of Dutch merchants all over the world, from Sumatra to Zanzibar via Goa. It remains a popular pattern today."
-From Wikipedia

A new Boerenbont collection is now on the market. Its based on the traditional pattern. One style is a simplified pattern with only blue & white (original the Boerenbont pattern is blue, red and green on white). One with a red Gingham pattern as a base. The name Gingham originates from an adjective in the Malay language (the language which forms the basis of standard Indonesian and Malaysian) ging-gang or genggang , meaning striped. When originally imported into Europe in the 17th century it was a striped fabric, though now it is distinguished by its checkered pattern. And the last one, the "bontste" (pied/most colourful/bold) is with a aquacolour blue checkered pattern and over it the orginal Boerrenbont pattern.

Following the steps of the quiz with multiple choice questions like "Is there a floral pattern jumpsuit on your wishlist?" (Hell Yeah, for a year now :)) and "With Carnival I go dressed as?" (I was Lady Gaga this year, so CHECK), "I get a tattoo..? " (I have one and I'm saving for one, so next question), I ended in only 4 steps at "Bontst". No surprise there.

In 2009 I made a screenprintseries based on Delftware & Batikpatterns. "In Holland staat een huis" (title of a Dutch children song) also has the Boerenbont pattern in it. The concept of the print is that every house in Holland (Holland is the Dutch part above the rivers, North & South Holland) has some Indonesian history in it. A history in roots or a colonial past.

Because I don't believe in coincidence, I think I put this one in my synchronicity list. Now that Boerenbont is new and improved they added the Ginggam pattern. I find out that the Gingham pattern is brought to Europe in the 17th century. That the word Ginggam is based on ging-gang, or genggang, which means "striped" in the Malay language spoken in places such as Malaysia and Indonesia, where it is believed to have originated.
In "In Holland staat een huis" I used the pattern combined with Batik to show our shared history. And now I know that we have a shared pattern, it's only a checkered one, but still very interesting.

Man attending Friday prayers at mosque, page from the book Batik, creating an identity, on the background Lief! wrappingpaper

Everything flows and nothing remains

2011-11-01T01:44:00.000-07:00

When I was 16 or 17 I read the book "Life doesn't exist" ("Het leven bestaat niet") by Hendrickje Spoor. It's a coming of age story. A fourteen year old girl tries the find the truth of life. She is having conversations with her father, her mother and a drug dealer, who are giving her advice on how to live life. One of the truths she tries out is "Everything flows and nothing remains" ("Alles stroomt en niets blijft"). The book was very important for me and still is, because that sentence still gives me the most sense of how to live life. Not only is it a (big/important) theme in my work, also in how I live.
In my first room in Breda I wrote the words on my wall. A visitor read it and said "That's depressing". I was so surprised, because I don't find it depressing or sad. It's not scary if you are aware of it. If you know that the things, the people that surround you are temporary and that every state of mind or feeling flows, changes, you learn to enjoy the moment more. And memories can never be taken away.
I'm a real collector. I love to own beautiful things (Artbooks, cloths, shoes, bags & jewelry, stuffed animals, especially sheep, furniture) and I'm really bad in throwing things away. I make photos, I started around the same time as I read the book "Life doesn't exist", with disposable cameras. For someone who believes in the temporary state of living, I keep holding on to a lot of things. But on the other hand I always live in temporary houses. In the almost 9 years I lived in Breda, I had eleven homes, of which in one I only lived 3 days and a mobile home in which I lived two weeks, so make it nine. I'm thinking a lot about the house I'm going to live in when I grow up. But I'm already kind of grown up and not yet near wanting to own a house (or able to..).
"Everything flows and nothing remains" is in both my temporary work as my less temporary work (paintings on paper, videos, photos and wallpaper-installations) an important theme. I posted that I would share more about Temporary Art. In the previous post about this subject I wrote about how Temporary Art isn't unsalable Art because it's bought & on display in many museums.
I like to end this post with another very fine example of Temporary Art.

"Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957 -1996) works invest the most mundane materials (candy, clocks, lightbulbs) and common-place processes (off-set printing, photography) with a preciousness and poetry to convey both the rational value of life and its inevitable transience."
-From Art Now

"Untitled (Placebo)", 1991, candies wrapped in silver cellophane

"Above all else, it is about leaving a mark I existed: I was here. I was hungry. I was defeated. I was happy. I was sad. I was in love. I was afraid. I was hopeful. I had an idea and I had a good purpose and that's why I made works of art."
-Felix Gonzalez-Torres

Lichens & birds made out of fabric

2011-10-31T07:23:00.000-07:00

In August I visited the Textiel Museum & De Pont in Tilburg with Susan van Uden. In the Textiel Museum they had two exhibitions, Lilies and thistles (till 6 november) & The Making Of, Projects From The TextielLab. In the blogpost Water lilies & table linen you can find photo's of the exhibition Lilies and thistles. Unfortunately it wasn't allowed to make pictures in the exhibition The Making Of, Projects From The TextielLab. But there where some nice works in progress on display in the TextielLab, enjoy!

These must-have carpets are made by Lizan Freijsen. This work is based on lichen.

"Lichens are composite organisms consisting of a symbiotic organism composed of a fungus with a photosynthetic partner, usually either a green alga or cyanobacterium. The morphology, physiology and biochemistry of lichens are very different from those of the isolated fungus and alga in culture. Lichens occur in some of the most extreme environments on Earth—arctic tundra, hot deserts, rocky coasts, and toxic slag heaps. However, they are also abundant as epiphytes on leaves and branches in rain forests and temperate woodland, on bare rock, including walls and gravestones, and on exposed soil surfaces in otherwise mesic habitats. Lichens are widespread and may be long-lived; however, many are also vulnerable to environmental disturbance, and may be useful to scientists in assessing the effects of air pollution, ozone depletion, and metal contamination. Lichens have also been used in making dyes and perfumes, as well as in traditional medicines."
From Wikipedia

The texture of the tufted carpet is so close to the real, but of course much smaller, lichen. Tufting is a type of textile weaving in which a thread is inserted on a primary base. I would love to do a project with tufting. It's such a beautiful technique. The TextielLab has the knowhow & equipment for it, hope my project will be approved...more about that if I know more..

Designer Arjan van Arendonk uses the fabric as a base for his paintings. Working over it with thick layerd materials, leaving bits open, showing the birds or other parts of the fabric. I already like the fabric as it is.

More about the TextielLab on www.textielmuseum.nl

NijntjeWalk in Utrecht

2011-10-21T02:54:00.001-07:00

"Pray" by Anrealage

This small lovely exhibition fits nicely in the subject Traditional Dutch. I think Nijntje (also called Miffy) is one of best know Dutch icon. Her creator Dick Bruna is a great artist and everyone who is interested in Art should get to know his work better!

Last week me and my mother visited the Dick Bruna Huis in Utrecht. With Miffy in Fashion the Dick Bruna Huis celebrates it's 5 year anniversary in the year of the rabbit. They invited fashion designers to create a party dress for Nijntje (see pictures). On of them is an African Batik Nijntje (more info below)!

My favorite is the Nijntje with the pearl earing. "Slow made Miffy" by i-did slow fashion is the perfect combination between old traditional Dutch & new Dutch fashion. The scarf around Nijntje's head is draped like the girl on the Vermeer painting, but it's also similar to how young & hip Muslim girls where their Hidjab. Brilliant & beautiful!

Miffy in Mood Indigo made by Lidewij Edelkoort

In search of handmade minimalism, Miffy's eyes become a dot pattern rendered in African tie-dye & dye craft.

'Miffy, Tahiti hostess' by Clements Ribeiro

"Slow made Miffy" by i-did slow fashion

'Pining for the heavens' by Edwin Oudshoorn.

Nijntje covered with beautiful butterflies by Claes Iversen

Got inspired?! Well you can make your own Nijntje dress for a competition. Hurry up, because the dress has to be at the Dick Bruna Huis on 30 October. More information about it here http://centraalmuseum.nl/bezoeken/agenda/ontwerpwedstrijd-nijntje-in-de-mode/. There you can find the pattern & conditions to participate (in Dutch).
If you make a dress, please let me know, I would love to share it here!

Nijntje in de mode / Miffy in fashion is shown at the Dick Bruna Huis in Utrecht till 22 of January 2012.

Water lilies & table linen

2011-10-20T04:15:00.000-07:00

Water lily in my pond

Running terribly behind with al my blogposts. I'm visiting a lot of exhibitions, getting inspired by new things I see & read every day. Every blogpost turns into a little project. I'm still looking up information about this flower carpet they make in Asselt (nearby Roermond). I found a old blackandwhite photo in a book. Apparently during the Procession, the priest walked over the flowers towards the church...Does it ring a bell?
The Gods Walk on rice in Selat on Bali...How remarkable is it that two traditions involve a temporary material (rice & flowers) which they make a carpet of and then the priest walks over it...two total different parts of the world. Apparently they also have a similar kind of tradition in Brazil with salt. So a lot to discover about this subject & I have a new idea for a work with this theme/tradition, soooo I will keep you posted. (And already some about it in this post!)
Yesterday I interviewed the assistant curator of the Museum Nusantara in Delft. Great interview and also a suprize closet full of Batiks! My mother is going to translate it for me, so soon an interview in perfect English here on De reis naar Batik.
Also I continued my quest for Delftware in Delft without visiting the standard tourist places. Which is quite a challenge. So that one is on the to-do-list as well (see blogpost A quest in Delft II) .
Last but not least I visited the Miffy in fashion exhibition & the Museum of contemporary Aboriginal Art in Utrecht. The last one really gave me a lot of ideas, MORE?! Yes even more. And seeing this short film by Lucas Grogan, I know I have to explore some Australian territory.

But before I do all of the above, Water lilies & table linen. In August I visited the Textiel Museum & De Pont in Tilburg with Susan van Uden. In the Textiel Museum they had two exhibitions, Lilies and thistles (till 6 november) & The Making Of, Projects From The TextielLab (see blogpost "Lichens & birds made out of fabric)". In this post I focus on the lilies, the TextielLab projects I save for later.

Table linen

"An exhibition with a central role for floral motifs in table damask.
Roses, carnations, lilies, thistles and violets have been a favorite motif on table damask for centuries. The way they are displayed varies over time and frequently follows prevailing art styles.

The exhibition shows damask table linen as well as designs, samples and pattern books from the last quarter of the 19th century, Art Deco, Art Nouveau, and the post-war period. Linen with floral patterns of contemporary designers such as Jurgen Bey and Chris Meindertsma is also shown.

Traditionally hunting- and flower patterns where used in Damask table linen. A common pattern is the "gesayde bloemen". Researchers say this pattern goes back to an old tradition. People use to sprinkle flowers around in their house as table decoration and on the ground. Still during processions flowers are used to cover the street like a colorful carpet."

I totally read over that last bit the first time..it's almost creepy..enough about people making temporary traditional carpets, continuing with the lilies.

Design "water lilly" by A. Louwers, 1900

Design "Water plant" by Albert Maurice Lejeune, 1912-1915, watercolour on paper

When I saw the sketch for the table linen design with Water lilies, it reminded me immediately of Batik. They simplify the flowers without making it abstract. The pattern "Water plant" looks much like the Batik pattern Kawung. The batik motif "Kawung" is a very ancient motif as can be seen in the carved stones of some Hindu and Buddhist temples in Java island built since 7th century.
The red curl is almost like a garuda from Batik Lasem.

Water lilies

Me at the entrance of the Indian water lilies

The design of the water lilly inspired me and I had this feeling I have to do something with it (and still have). A water lilies has a exotic, sunny feeling to it like a Sunflower, but more mysteriously. I went looking for a connection between Water lilies, Damask, Batik & my interest for it. Haven't found a water lily pattern in Batik from Indonesia yet, but found a lot of related things.

The synchronicity starts with my love for the Indonesian/Indian Water lilies from the Efteling ( a theme park full of fairy tailes). This attraction tells the story of these beautiful fairies who love to dance. One night 7 of them didn't stop dancing, the moon goddess called them to turn back in to stars, but they wouldn't listen. A witch had them under her spell, and let them dance ever since when the moon reaches the sky, poor little fairies.

Cover of book "Dewi Sri". written by Ruud Greve

Page from book "Dewi Sri" with the story about Dewi Nawang Wulan

The story is loosely based on a Indonesian folktale about Dewi Nawang Wulan. This Dewi Nawang Wulan is also know as Dewi Sri. In August I also visited the Museum Nusantara and I bought this wonderful book about Dewi Sri there. The book written by Ruud Greve is full of traditions, stories & legends about the goddess of rice and one of the stories is the story about the 7 bathing nymphs ("hemelnimfen"), the legend of Dewi Nawang Wulan. On the cover of the book Dewi Sri is walking in a Sawah filled with, yes, Water lilies.

As I mentioned before I didn't found a Indonesian Batik with Water lilies, but I found something else. Apparently the national flower or symbol of Sri Lanka is a water lily, and "drumroffle" they make Batik in Sri Lanka. A friend of mine is going to Sri Lanka and she promised me to look for Water lily covered Batiks, so the story continues!

Now maybe your thinking what's all this talk about Water lilies. so I like to end my longest blogpost ever (at least the most hours spend on one blogpost) with a picture made by my grandfather that hangs in my studio & if you have time and no plans this weekend, go to the exhibition "Made by Vlisco" at the Gemeentemuseum Helmond. It ends 23 October (if you go, let me know, I would love to hitch a ride!)

Dia put to photo by my grandfather Aad van Toor

Bloemencorso in Zundert

2011-10-07T01:52:00.000-07:00

On Sunday 3 September me, Koen, Isa Gama & her kids went to the Bloemencorso in Zundert. I missed it last year, when I saw pictures of it , I promised myself I wouldn't miss it again.

It inspired me to make the ricecarpet for Vincent at the Van GoghHuis in Zundert last year. You can find pictures of that project here.

Ricecarpet for Vincent, 2010

The Bloemencorso is an event in which tradition & temporay art come together. The Bloemencorso, or Flower Parade is a parade in which float are decorated with flowers, and in Zundert only with Dahlia's! It's a total different ball game from the floats they show during Carnaval in Brabant. Those papier-mâché head spinning funny cars have their charm, but the floats in Zundert are really fine, detailed, precise pieces of Art. The floats are very delicate, covered with Dahlia's in beautiful colors. It's great to see how a village makes this together and no one is talking about the temporary state of the floats. They just honor the beauty of flowers & creativity in general!

This year was the jubilee, 75 years ago they organized the first Bloemencorso in Zundert! Next year it will be on Sunday 2 September, put that date in your planner! More info about the Bloemencorso on www.bloemencorsozundert.nl.

Enjoy the photos & see you next year front row!

Temporary Art

2011-10-06T00:39:00.000-07:00

In my previous post about Traditional Dutch I announce more posts about Dutch Arts & Craft. I also would like to post more about a subject already close to my work, Temporary Art. There will be some cross-over, like the Flower Parade ("Bloemencorso"). It's traditional and it really doesn't get more temporary then that! And I would like to show that the ongoing discussion about "Unsalable Art" is really pointless. There are so many examples of Temporary Art that has been bought & are on display in museums. And Temporary Art has such a strong story to tell and the story would just dissolve if the work was permanent.

To show my point :), I start with two works on display in two Dutch museums.

Michiel François "Niet vallen! Pas Tomber" (Don't fall!) dandelions ("paardenbloemen") & carpet (carpet is not on the pictures)

This work shown in De Pont in Tilburg is very nice example of Temporary Art. How did he hang those dandelions?! Normally if you pick the dandelions and you blow softly, the seeds will be carried of by the wind. How did he get them there?!
Really beautiful!

I'm not so fond of the total work. It includes a carpet on the floor, based on the map of a cell from a FPK clinic. The concept is very strong, using the carpet as a "prison" and the dandelions as symbol for freedom. But I'm not sure about the choice of material. The contrast between the temporary & the permanent is too fierce. How ever it's still a very nice partly temporary work!

Second up, the Wood Circle by Richard Long.

"In the nature of things:
Art about mobility, lightness and freedom.
Simple creative acts of walking and marking
about place, locality, time, distance and measurement.
Works using raw materials and my human scale
in the reality of landscapes."
- Richard Long

It made my day when I saw this picture. Haven't seen the real deal yet...The Wood Circle is shown by the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven. They are Crowd Funding to buy this fine piece of Art! You can help them by buying a nice button, t-shirt or book, more info about that on their website.

Coming up next the Flower Parade in Zundert, so keep visiting my blog!

Traditional Dutch

2011-09-27T05:50:00.000-07:00

On August 2 I went to Amsterdam to document the Batiks made by Carp. That afternoon I visited the Van Gogh Museum & het Rijksmuseum. Haven't visit the Rijksmuseum for ages, and I was surprised to find beautiful, "typical" Dutch items on display. Of course it was forbidden to make pictures and on every corner was a security guard (they don't really trust the tourists in Amsterdam, do they?!), so this time no illegal pictures.

With its two doors and resting on tall legs linked by a stretcher, this large cabinet is a typical piece of Dutch furniture. The cabinet is simply shaped, drawing the focus to the artistic decoration of floral marquetry (Marquetry is a form of inlay in which a variety of materials are arranged to form a kind of jigsaw puzzle). The oak cupboard is veneered all over with various types of wood in which the cabinetmaker, Jan van Mekeren, created still lifes of large, exuberant bouquets. In addition to introducing various types of wood in a range of tints, he also made exploited the effect of the grain. Click on the picture and zoom in!

When I saw this cabinet made by Jan van Mekeren, I knew I should learn more about our Dutch tradition in decorating furniture. It's a beautiful example of the rich culture we had, I say had, because now we buy plain furniture at Ikea.

Drawing: Hendrik J. Lap, collection Fries Museum

Not only did we had a rich culture in decorating furniture, we also painted/baked/decorated/embroidered/laced etc. clothing, interior items like tiles, pottery, wallpaper, carpets, we made wooden shoes & we have some pretty, weird but nice traditions like the Bloemencorso (flower parade). More about that in a upcoming post.

On Saturday I was reading the Volkskrant magazine. In it was an short article about the designer Christien Meindertsma. A Dutch designer who loves old-fashion traditional crafts and use them in her work on a new & inspiring way.
From the project Oak Inside. Oak Inside is a project for Thomas Eyck. A collection made in collaboration with Roosje Hindeloopen and Tinctoria.

In the article they tell about her new project Oak Inside . For this project she works with a familie business called Roosje Hindeloopen, who are specialist in painting the Hindeloopen style. She designed the furniture, they painted the motif.

From the project Oak Inside

"In one curly move he painted the flowers. I could never do that", said Meindertsma. But it was her idea to paint the pattern on the wood with wax. So that the shape stayed unpainted, similar as in the technique Batik. (translated freely from the article in the Volkskrant magazine of 24 September)

When I read that line, I knew. The next few months I will try to learn more about our traditional arts & crafts. I found these three books in the secondhand and I already had some books about Hindeloopen. I'll keep you posted!

Museum Nusantara in Delft

2011-08-23T06:32:00.000-07:00

Entrance Museum Nusantara

In the previous blogpost I told about my quest in Delft. A long time I wanted to visit the Museum Nusantara. The museum shows the history and the cultures of Indonesia and the 400 year old relationship between the Netherlands and Indonesia. The museum was founded by "Indische instelling" (1864 - 1900) in Delft.

So I started my day in Delft. The museum is on a beautiful location in the center of the city, right next to Museum Het Prinsenhof (former residence of Prince William of Orange)
On Saturdays between 11am and 1pm the 200-year-old Javanese Gamelan is played in the museum!

The exhibition "Between Heaven and Earth" shows the highlights from the collection in two different themes. The first theme is the Javanese court culture of which the krisses (see pictures below) and Gamelan are a part.

The second theme "Images of Magic" shows the spiritual life of the previously isolated island of Indonesia. The rich cultures following the important (unwritten) life rules of the adat in which Ancestor worshipping plays a big part.

Ceramonial kris. The pendok or sheath of silver is shaped like the demon Kala, who as the story goes, stops the impact of snakes and blows.

Handle of ivory, Kris of the type Jawa Demam, showing an human like figure with jewelry around the neck and ankles shaped like snakes or naga's

Wayang Golek

Wayang Kulit

Everytime I visit a museum I'm always surprised by some information I didn't know but I should have known. Like the lovely bridal couple on the picture.
On Java you'll find these figurines everywhere. In special rooms, in every important building, but also in almost every house and in all the gift shops. I asked in Indonesia who they are, but they didn't know or told me that it was the sultan with his wife. This is the younger generation I'm talking about. I had a couple in my hand in one of the big gift shops in Yogyakarta, but didn't buy them, because I wasn't sure who they represented or what they represented. Sometimes "Good luck" isn't enough.

If I knew about this then, I think I would have bought more than one. It's Dewi Sri and her Sadono. (or Sedana). I was so surprised, how couldn't I have known. She's my favorite Goddess!
The figurines are called "Loro Blonyo", meaning two becomes one. They stand for fertility and prosperity.The figurines normally are placed in front of the wedding bed, Kobongan. In Surakarta (now Solo) the use of these figurines was reserved for royalty.
In the bridal room also pots for cooking rice are placed under the bed. In many legends they tell the story about Dewi Sri, the Goddess of rice and how she and her brother (also called Dewi Sedana) were the bringers of prosperity (in the form of Rice) and were the protectors for the farmers (in one story they change in a Burung Walet (Swallow) and a Ular Sawah (Sawa snake) to protect the rice plants from being eaten by insects and rats).
I still don't know why her groom is also her brother. There are many different stories about Dewi Sri, the origin of Rice. And the role of her lover or brother in these stories are different every time. Maybe the translation sometimes change their relationship, or it's more about the strong connection between two persons. Maybe the term brother or groom isn't the right word, but comes closest to the divine connection Dewi Sri and Dewi Sedana have.

I bought this wonderful book about Dewi Sri in the gift shop at Museum Nusantara. It's by Ruud Greve and tells all about the stories, legends and rituals around the Goddess of Rice. So more where that came from next time!

In 2009 the museum ordered this Wayang group at the Wayang puppet maker Ki Ledjar Subroto. It tells the story about the murder of Willem Of Orange. East meeting West on a very special way.

Ikats

Nusantara owns a big collection of Ikats from Sumba. They are beautiful displayed (but it's very dark, for the safety of the fabrics, so difficult the photograph) and they have new & older ones. Below some details of two Ikats.

Hinggi kombu, man's cloth

Beadwork patch for a baby carrier from Kalimantan from before 1934. The central motif is called kalong kalunan. The figure has arms that become hornbills and feet that become dragonlike figures called asu. Symbols for the tree of life and the entire cosmos. Only nobility can use this motif.

Guardian figure shaped like a feline, a clouded panther Neofelis diardi from Kalimantan from before 1925

Very small ancestor figure made of black ebony from Leti, South Moluccas

When I left the museum I wrote something in the guestbook. I sat outside for a while and decided to visit the Museum Het Prinsenhof. I was putting away my backpack when the security of Nusantara entered, looking for me..He read my comment in the guestbook and thought I should meet the curator ("conservator") of the museum. I'm very happy he did that for me! I met the curator shortly and received shortly after my visit an email.
In the exhibition of the museum there are no Batiks on display, but they have Batiks in the depot and I'm invited to see them, jippie! But first I'm going to interview the curator. I always been very interested in history, archeology & Anthropology and before I went to the Art Academy I dreamed of becoming an restorer.
So how do you become the curator of the Museum Nusantara, what is her connection with Indonesia and what are her favorite items of the collection, more questions and more importantly the answers end of October here on The journey to Batik (see blogpost Interview with Assistant curator of Museum Nusantara.)

A quest in Delft

2011-08-23T01:15:00.000-07:00

Fabric Hall in Delft

Wednesday 10 of August I visited Delft. I was looking at an earlier blogpost about Batik Buketan. In this post I metioned the influence of Delftware on Batik Belanda. (read the post here). And that in my opinion the patterns used in Batik Belanda are not based or inspired on the typical Dutch Delftware, but on the Chinese porcelain on which our Delftware is based on in the first place, or you could say "borrowed" from.

I also mention that my knowledge of Delftware is limited and that I would do some research first. So I finally went to visit Delft.
It also had to do with the Batiks by Carp I documented. She also made a Batik with the typical blue & white where Batik Belanda is know for.

Unfortunelly I didn't visit the Delfst Blue museum, because I was short of money. I did visit the Musum Nusantara (see next post), Museum Het Prinsenhof and the Botanic Garden.
And walking around in Delft I came across some nice inspired on Delftware things.

I will visit Delft again soon and then I make sure to have a more filled wallet.

Bench at Museum Het Prinsenhof

Lantern at Museum Nusantara

Tile in the bathroom of the Delft Blue Museum

Tile in the bathroom of the Delft Blue Museum

Botanic Garden

Walking through the Botanic Garden I realized that a lot of the flowers there are found in Batik. I made some close-up so I can compare them with the flowers in Batiks I photographed. But also maybe in Delfstware.
They also had a big aviary at the Botanic Garden. It was full of Gelatiks ("Rijstvogels") and other finches. The Gelatiks had a beautiful song, very different from Batik (my own ricebird). When I first saw the Gelatiks, two were jumping on a stick, like little drummers.

I captured both birds & flowers on my quest to find more about Delftware. A quest in the opposite direction (first a post about it "Batik Buketan", then a visit to the city where it is made, but finding not pottery but tropical birds and flowers), wondering where it will lead me...

Musa Basjoo, Japanese Banana, used to make cloting & thea bags

Rice bird

Fuchsia

Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam

2011-08-05T04:51:00.000-07:00

Offering cup decorated with red coral

Wednesday me and Koen visited the Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam. It's not allowed to make pictures, but they have all these beautiful, inspiring things and we had a Iphone. They told us on every floor we weren't allowed, but I had to share these with you!

A (glued) Tibetan sand mandala

It's very nice to see one up-close, but it's also strange. It's not meant to survive. It stands for the temporary of life and if you then go and glue it to a board..t's just a typical Western thing to do. A lot of people ask me if my ricecarpet are glued or why I don't glue it. I always say that the idea behind it is that it's temporary. And if a ricecarpet was not from rice, beans and lentils, but a real carpet no one will look at it that long or intensely. And that maybe now they will look better or longer to the things they own, the things they use, the things that are common ("vanzelfsprekend") because they are just as temporary.

The Batiks were a bit hidden, but I noticed this way of displaying Batiks also in Amsterdam & Leiden. Maybe it has to do with the fragility of the fabrics. In Amsterdam the conservator told me that they never exhibit the Batiks in their collection (only with theme exhibitions) because they don't have the manpower to change the Batiks every 6 months and that then the risk of the colours fading is too high. But they also had a lot of Ikats at the Wereldmuseum and they were fully displayed.
One Batik I was really happy to see. It's called Simbut, a cloth painted with a pattern using Darih, a thick paste made of Oryza glutinosa (flour of sticky rice) instead of wax. The Darih is applied with sticks or by hand. Therefore the pattern are more rough, then the Batiks made with canting. The Batiks (in Dutch called "Kleefrijstbatiks") are made during a ritual. The abstract symbols on the cloth are mostly compasses ("windroos", shaped like a clover) and Swatika (Sunlike symbols). The cloth is used for protection and sometimes they hang a Simbut it the top of a new building for good luck and as a protection against bad spirits.

I know this Batik from the book "Bloemen van het heelal" by A. Veldhuizen-Djajasoebrata (see image above). I think it's a really inspiring Batik. The pattern is very simple, but very strong. I used the patterns in my ricecarpets. See the posts about Dance in a ricecarpet "Goddess of Rice?" and Making of Dance in a Ricecarpet in Etten-Leur .
The symbols stand for the cycle of life (the turning Sun, the directions of the wind) and the temporay of life.
I think it's the same Batik, too bad it wasn't displayed fully..

If you are in Rotterdam do visit the Wereldmuseum. The building is beautiful and they have 3 floors filled with special objects from all over the world (Africa, Asia, Oceania, America, Islamic culture)!

Made by Carp

2011-08-04T02:33:00.000-07:00

Tuesday I visited the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam. I had an appointment with the conservator to look at some very special Batiks. The Batiks made by Maria Paulina Carp.

On the 28th of September I will give an lecture about My journey to Batik at the Indische Huiskamer in Eindhoven. To prepare for my lecture I visited the Indische Huiskamer in April, see blogpost Indische Huiskamer (in Dutch). There I met madam Rosielle-Bergsma, the granddaughter of Maria Paulina Carp. She told me about the Batiks she gave to the Tropenmuseum.

I'm so glad I got the chance to see, touch and to document the Batiks made by Carp. I will share the pictures after the lecture, because it still has to be a little surprise for madam Rosielle-Bergsma to see them again.

I got an open invitation from the conservator that if I would like to see more Batiks, I'm always welcome.
Ohh will it be more Batiks from Pekalongan or maybe from Lasem or Cirebon...?

A box with 4 special Batik Belanda's

Signature "M Carp Pekalongan" , Made by Maria Paulina Carp

PindaKAAS Light in Tilburg

2011-06-15T02:06:00.000-07:00

Wallpaper installation The journey of Batik

Sunday the 5 of June PindaKAAS Light took place in Tilburg. I showed a work in progress & "The journey of Batik" and made a Batik Sidewalk Chalk Workshop.

With different assignments like "What kind of animal would you like to draw in a Batik?" or "Draw a fantasy Batik bird", a Batik was created on the sidewalk.

The work in progress I showed is a presentation about the Pagi-Sore Batik (day-night Batik) I'm making. The plan in short is to make a painting of a day-night Batik. I make a design of it and send it to Indonesia. Where (hopefully) the Batik makers in Jeruk will make a Batik of it. Eventually they will be exhibit together.
Because the work is still in progress, I can't show details of the painting yet.

From left to right: The Women in Jeruk (page from my photobook "The journey to Batik"), examples of Pagi-Sore Batiks, photo of the workplace in Jeruk, Batik I made in Yogyakarta, photo Jeruk, sketch for my Pagi-Sore Batik.

Because I was busy with the workshop I didn't had time to see much of the program of PindaKAAS, but I did see the theater show "Deze & Genen" by Elsbeth Vernout . A real must see show. Great songs & a strong story!

Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam

2011-05-05T00:32:00.000-07:00

Ancestor figure from New Guinea

Last week I visited the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam. It was a long time ago that I was there. It is located in a beautiful building. The Tropenmuseum has a lot of Batiks in their collection, unfortunately not on display in the museum. But still there was enough inspiration to be found! I especially like the bird figures from New Guinea & Papua (see the photo's below) and I think the Tree of life will have a place in my work soon.

Enjoy the photo's and when you are in Amsterdam do visit the Tropenmuseum!

More info on www.tropenmuseum.nl

New Guinea

Dance skirt made of Bark ("boomschors"), Sentani-lake, Papua

Hornbill figure ("Neushoornvogelfiguur") and other mythical bird figures

Nut cracker from Madura, Indonesia
Malaysia, 19e century
Love this one! Bird figure made by the Asmat (people) from Papua. It's based on a cockatoo.

This Hornbill figure was used by the Abelam (people) to gard the men house. Papua/New Guinea

Indonesia

Prayer shawl, Batik made in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 2007

Tree of Life

Tree of life ("levensboom") This specific one is used in Wayang to mark the beginning, end or the break of a Wayang play. The Tree of life is called Dewadaru. It stands for gift of the gods. The tree grows on the Karimunjawa Islands north of Java. The inhabitants believe the wood of the tree has heeling power and is used as an charm for protection.

Tree of life from Mexico. In Mexico this Tree of life is used on the Day of the dead ("Día de los Muertos"). The candles stand for the spirits of lost family and friends.

India

In 1675 the Dutch East India Compony (VOC) began importing brightly coloured chintz ("sitsen") from India. In the Netherlands they started to make imitations. This jacket ("jakje") is from the around 1817 closed cotton print factory "Overtooms welvaren" in Amsterdam.

Wooden printblocks from Iran

Printblock ("drukblok"), made of wood from Iran, decorated with palmette ("palmetten-versiering"; gestilleerd palmblad of kleine palm) for applying ornaments on cotton. The printblocks look a lot like the caps from Indonesia. I think they apply the paint directly to the wood and then stamp on the fabric. With the cap it's the wax that is applied to the fabric.

African Batik

Angisa's, textile with a message. The origin of this folded head cloth lies in West Africa. The way the head cloth is folded gives expression the the feeling of the wearer. Sometimes it's a silent for of protest or a way to show happiness.

Indische Huiskamer

2011-05-04T05:58:00.000-07:00

het Indische Huiskamer Koor

Vorige week woensdag bezocht ik de Indische huiskamer in Eindhoven georganiseerd door Joyce Radesey van het Indische Atelier. Deze gezellig Indische middag wordt maandelijks gehouden in het buurthuis De Boemerang.
Ik was ter voorbereiding van mijn lezing over De reis naar Batik die ik daar in september ga verzorgen. Ik kijk er erg naar uit en hoop dat ik er net z'n leuke dag van kan maken als vorige week.

Jozef & Det Wagenaars vertelde over Kampoeng Baron. Een restaurant met guestrooms op Java waarin kunst een belangrijke rol speelt. Det's broer Boudewijn Brands starte het project om lokale, beginnende kunstenaars een ontmoetingsplek te geven. Hij verzamelde zelf kunst en kwam op het idee om een galerie/residentie plek op te zetten aan de kust in Java samen met Zulkarnain. Om het project te financieren startte zij eerst een restaurant. Voordat Boudewijn zijn droom kon verwezenlijken overleed hij echter plots, kort na het openen van het restaurant, tijdens een aardbeving.
Zijn zus Det en zwager Jozef zetten het project nu voort. Naast een restaurant ,met vele kunstwerken uit Boudewijn's collectie aan de muren, zijn er nu ook twee guestrooms bijgebouwd. Hier komen in de loop van de tijd nog familiehuisjes en een galerie bij.

Meer over Kampoeng Baron op www.kampoeng-baron.com

De middag werd afgesloten met een vakantievideo van een doorreis in Indonesië met de focus op de Sunda eilanden. De amateur video toonde en zeer bijzondere, groene oase, vol rituele, grote beesten & mooie mensen.

Tussen de presentaties door zong het Indische Huiskamer Koor enkele liedjes waarbij iedereen een map kreeg met songteksten om mee te zingen (zie foto).

De volgende Indische Huiskamer is op 25 mei in het buurthuis “de Boemerang“ (Planetenlaan 1a , Eindhoven. Bus lijn 4 - uitstappen halte Andromeda Plaats)

The Gods Walk on Rice in Selat, Bali

2011-03-28T05:15:00.000-07:00

When I find the time & peace I take my rice-bible and flip through and read bits & pieces in it. I'm looking for inspiration, but even more conformation. My ricecarpets get a different response in the Netherlands then they did in Indonesia. Here they always refer to the fact that it is food and that it's a pity to use it like that, although they like to look at it (and touch it) . For me it's a material, a beautiful, colorful one and the fact that it's food comes on the second place. It makes it a stronger piece of art because it rice and therefore temporary, but it's still difficult sometimes to fight the contradiction.

For me it feels really logical to use rice and at first I used it as a work that had to be eaten by birds. But with the "Dance in a ricecarpet", the rice is no longer food, it's so much more, it's richer, makes layers, gives it depth, sound, movement.
When I' found the book "The Art of Rice" I was overwhelmed. The book is devoted to rice, but not as food, as ART. And not only in painting as a subject, but really art made of rice (rice dough, grain, the plant).

On friday 15th of April I'm invited to show the "Dance in a ricecarpet" ones more. When I came across these images, I knew I was on the right track. I know it's not the same, but I know we will create a rare moment in time, the audience will experience something new and special.
In 2009 I found an inspiring image also involving rice (with dance).

The images in this post are taking during the rice festival in Selat, Bali. During a procession, "The Gods Walk on Rice" offers are carried across a pathway made with (un)cooked, yellow or white rice. It stretched up to 350 meters. I really would like to see this in real life, but unfortunate no one hear of it..If you know more about this rice festival and when & where "The Gods Walk of Rice" takes place, let me know!

All photos are from the book "The Art of Rice", my so called rice-bible.

Working with rice

2011-03-09T00:34:00.000-08:00

Rice installation, Yogyakarta, Indonesia by Edith Bons

Many artists use paint or clay, for me the material of choice is rice. And I'm not the only one. Three articles I found about work inspired by or made of rice (click on the images to enlarge). Enjoy!

Article by Frans Leidelmeijer. Each month he reviews an artwork that was influenced by European and Indonesian culture in the Moesson

Edith Bons is an interesting Dutch artist who was born in Indonesia. Her work is an combination of installations, paintings and collages. The articles are in Dutch, but in short there about what inspires her to make her work.
Her roots are in Indonesia, and it has a great influence on her work, but on the other hand her western upbringing has a great influence as well. She uses Batik motifs (Polengmotif, symbol of cosmic unity, used in Bali for holy cloths) and rice (she says: "rice is nutrient (both physically as spiritual(, transparent, has structure, and can transform into many shapes...It has a connection with the Javanese goddess for fertility: Dewi Sri..)

Article from the BKK Krant, December 2010

In the folder from the past exhibition in the Grafisch Atelier Den Bosch rice is used in a graphic technique called "blinddrukken". The rice is used as a stamp by Poula Versantvoort. Unfortunally her website is offline, so I only have this information.

Work was part of group exhibition "Klassieke uitdrukkingswijzen in eigentijdse uitingen" at het Grafisch Atelier

Big trend

2011-01-06T04:20:00.001-08:00

Spring collection L.A.M.B.

Reading a new post of Tavi I noticed that there was an African Batik dress hanging behind her & Gwen Stefani. Googling I read that the new L.A.M.B. Spring collection (Gwen's own fashion label) is full of African Batiks.

Gwen Stefani in her own L.A.M.B. African Batik dress

At my new job I read the new fashion magazines like Grazia every week. One of the december issues covered a story of the dress makers for the Vlisco ads. The Vlisco campaigns show beautifully made dresses of the fabrics they sell.

Latest campaign by Vlisco

After seeing the campaign photo's I told Koen that I would only wear Batik from now on on, or at least pattern covered fabrics. Cause I'm not handy with fabric and I don't own a lot of Batiks yet. Any way, I would like visit the store in Helmond soon (and wear only Batik later in life)

Vlisco, P.F. van Vlissingen & Co's Katoenfabrieken, started their fabric legacy around 1852 with exporting hand printed Batiks to the Dutch East Indies, now know as Indonesia. An uncle of Pieter F. van Vlissingen was already trading in Indonesia and told him about the possibilities.

Vlisco "Real Dutch Java Prints", collection Textiel Museum (Tilburg)

Vlisco made very good imitations of well known Batiks, originally made by hand, and these were exported to Indonesia. From 1876 they started with the African Batiks which are now their main business.

From Johanna

I'm now, among other things, preparing the PR for the exhibition of artist Johanna Schweizer for "Spiegelhol" at IDFX. At the last meeting she showed me her Batiks. A unique Vlisco and real ones from Bali. She even gave me one.

But that's not all the African Batiks that come upon my path these last months. My next door neighbor always wears these beautiful African Batiks when she goes to church. Every time I see her, the Batiks remind me of the work of artist Emmy Dijkstra.

In Emmy's early works, mostly black and white graphic prints, the people are wearing traditional (African) clothing.

After her residence in France she got inspired by Tapa (Bark Cloth printed, painted or stamp, with patterns) and made a series of paper dresses. I told her that we should do a residence together. After thinking and talking about it in 2010, we started 2011 with a virtual residence at Virtual Art Winter Residence together. The work we make we hope to show and develop together at a real location later this year.

So the (African) Batik trend continues, in big fashion & small art!

Another thing that really has to happen this year is getting a closer look at the Batik collection of the Textiel Museum in Tilburg. They own a lot of Batiks, from around the world and off course the Vlisco imitations.

Last but not least, my photo book "De reis naar Batik, een vergeten industrie" ("The journey to Batik, an forgotten Industry") is published in the january edition of the Dutch Indonesian magazine Moesson.
You can order the book in Dutch or English by sending me an email at sabine@sabinebolk.nl.

It's going to be a Batik-full year!

Small trend in Breda

2010-12-04T02:16:00.000-08:00

Spotting two young guys wearing Batik backpacks in Breda a couple a weeks ago. I saw these backpack in Indonesia, and one of guys told me he bought it there. It's good to see them wear these patterns from their roots full of pride here! I consider it a small trend, because I spotted a lot of Batik fabric bags since I'm back from Indonesia. The typical "made for tourist" bags stand out the most, and I was so happy to spot the backpacks here. It's very trendy to wear an backpack with an striking patterns. It's telling "this is me!". I have my own patterned backpack and it took a while finding the right one.
Wearing Batik comes back in a new form and I hope the trend will be followed by more!

Something else, biological fashion by Ami Goodheart of SOTO Productions

2010-11-25T00:24:00.000-08:00

Wrote a short post called "Even iets anders, Bio-fashion door verschillende ontwerpers" (Something else, biological fashion by different designers) about a similar subject in December 2009. Now I came across this great example.

"Each model's clothing in the series was made entirely of real food and depicts a meal that the person was craving. This project was shot in January of 2009 (pre Lady Gaga). 15 designers, led by Ami Goodheart of SOTO Productions, were involved and each garment took hours to cook, create and assemble. The artichoke gown was designed by Daniel Feld and Wesley Nault of Project Runway fame. It took over 6 hours to finish (the model stood the entire time while they attached each, individual leaf)."

I think the idea behind this work is very good. For myself I'm more interested in the way they use these materials. In the earlier post about bio-fashion, the designers used flowers and leaves to make an ecofriendly fashion-show. It nice to see these temporary materials being used in such a positive way. Because I work with rice (and lentils etc), a lot of people start about the hunger in the world when they see my work. For me the rice is purely a (beautiful) material, like some artists use paint or clay. Sometimes I do use the fact that it's food, but always in a way that the temporality is emphasized. So I think the dresses, pants & shirts would have been stronger if it wasn't about their hunger, but about their favorite food.

Link:
"Hunger Pains" led by Ami Goodheart of SOTO Productions
"Even iets anders, Bio-fashion door verschillende ontwerpers" by me
(Something else, biological fashion by different designers)

Vincent's Japan and my Indonesia

2010-11-11T23:29:00.000-08:00

Ricecarpet for Vincent, made at the Vincent van GoghHuis (Vincent's birthplace) in Zundert

From 8 till 29 October I stayed in the Virtual Art Residence. This project founded by artists I know, is about exploring the way of showing and exhibiting work. I booked the Van Gogh caravan and decided to make my stay about Vincent van Gogh.
Everyone knows his work, but I found out that I really didn't know his work at all. And I didn't expected to find so many similarities in our work. More about my first virtual residence and my finding on my residence wordpress, www.sabinebolk.wordpress.nl
Because Vincent work inspired me so much and made some things clearer in my work and way I should continue. I booked the Van Gogh caravan again for 14 November till end december. My plan for then, for now, is to explore Vincent’s use of patterns (background of the portraits he made), his use of colour and his love for Japan. My love for Indonesia and how Asia inspires art and artist now & always.
I will share my findings on my wordpress & here

Overview PindaKAAS Light

2010-09-30T02:56:00.000-07:00

Opening by Pertama Pentas

Saturday the twenty-fifth the second PindaKAAS took place in a Light version. It was a wonderfull evening, I was missing Indonesia more then ever :). They evening was filled with good food, nice performances, poetry, fashion, dance & art. The dance by choreographer Gerard Mosterd “Unfolding‟ was very inspiring. I gave him a copy of the "Dance in a ricecarpet" CD, hope he'll enjoy it! The dance was danced by German-Japanese dancer Julia Mitomi. A must see performance!

Here is a little overview of the evening.My wallpaper installation "The journey of Batik", for more photo's (by night) click here.

Taking flight

Fresh from the Artacademy, fotographer Whitney Lemasian. She showed her graduation-installation and thesis. Her search for her roots and there fore her search for her father led to this work. More about her work on www.whitneylemasian.com.

Photographer Kim Pattiruhu from Tilburg (NL) showed different photo series including "Tiga puluh hari: Napak tilas (2008)". She visited Indonesia with her father.for 30 days The story is told in a beautiful designed book. More about Kim's work on www.kimpattiruhu.nl

Dutch Indonesian fashion by Soesoe productions

"Van Hollandse Bodem" (From Dutch soil), Dutch Indonesian fashion by Soesoe productions. I definitely would like to work in the garden wearing this!

Poet Winarko Bazoeni Boesrie with his daughter Fithrie, who is reading the translations aloud.

Make sure to visit the next edition of PindaKAAS! More about PindaKAAS on www.pindakaasfestival.nl

Goddess of Rice?

2010-09-27T06:29:00.000-07:00

They call her Dewi Sri, the goddess of rice. I didn't know that name untill artist Krisna Murti shared photo's of my project "Dance in a ricecarpet" with the titel "Goddess of Rice?". I started looking up information about Dewi Sri, also know as Dewi Shri (Javanese), Nyai Pohaci Sanghyang Asri (Sundanese), Mae Po Sop, Siamese rice goddess in Thailand, and Khmer Po Ino Nogar, rice goddess of Cambodia. My Dance in a ricecarpet dancer Barbara van Kooten looks a bit like Dewi Sri, but also the project itself symbolize things which Dewi Sri symbolize.

The dance is about creating, destroying and rebuilding. A process of within shown with rice.

Barbara's dance starts in a ricecarpet made of black, red and yellow rice and blond lentil. The patterns in this ricecarpet are based on different Batikmotifs. Left and right you'll see the motif of the Batikbird, phoenix or "bang-biru" bird from Batik Lasem. In the black parts are motifs from Simbut Batiks, symbols for life in the shape of a Sun or compass. The center of the ricecarpet is a mask or moth.

Barbara's dance makes different shapes in the rice, a small flower turn in to a mandala.

With red lentils Barbara accentuate her new made ricecarpet.

Dewi Sri is believed to have dominion over the underworld and the Moon. Thus, Dewi Sri encompasses the whole spectrum of the Mother Goddess, having dominion over birth and Life. She controls rice: the staple food of Indonesians; hence life and wealth or prosperity; most especially rice surpluses for the wealth of kingdoms in Java such as Mataram, Majapahit and Pajajaran; and their inverse: poverty, famine, hunger, disease (to a certain extant) and Death.

I bought a book "The Art of Rice"(present for my birthday from my parents, thanks!!). More about Dewi Sri will be edit soon because there is a lot information about this in this book!

Ethnology Museum in Leiden

2010-09-20T03:11:00.001-07:00

Wayang Golek from Cirebon (see motif on the small sarong) from beginning of the 19e century

Last weekend I went to Leiden to build up my wallpaper installation "The journey of Batik" for the Artroute. I couldn't remember the last time I was in Leiden, it's a really beautiful city with a typical Dutch atmosphere.
When I was finished at the Scheltema Complex I went to the Museum Volkenkunde (Ethnology Museum). I always try to go to museums when I'm in a city and have some spare time. This museum is really great, it has beautiful old things from all over the world, and a large part of the things are from Indonesia.

I made a lot of photos to share with you all, enjoy!

Overview of the Batiks in museum collection

From Banyumas, Jawa Tengah, detail a kain panjang from before 1878

From Banyumas, Jawa Tengah, detail a kain panjang from before 1878

From Banyumas, Jawa Tengah, detail a kain panjang from before 1878

From Sulawesi Tengah, Indonesia, before 1958, party clothing made of tree bark

From Sulawesi Tengah, Indonesia, before 1901, Painting on tree bark

From Sumatra Utara, Indonesia, before 1889, Pustaha ( priest book) made of tree bark and leather, writings are called Kawi
From Kalimatan Barat, Indonesia, before 1893, to cover up food, I would like one to cover up my ricecarpets

Tree Bark art from Fiji. This one is made in 1973 to celebrate the first birthday of Pauline

To paint the bark they sometimes use templates

More info about the Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden on www.rmv.nl

PindaKAAS light

2010-08-25T05:06:00.000-07:00

PindaKAAS light is on the 25 of September in the Scheltema in Leiden, NL. PindaKAAS means Peanut butter in Dutch. The name reference to the nicknames peanut and cheesehead, but are now used as sobriquet.
I'm invited to show my wallpaper installation "The journey of Batik". I'm very happy with that, because the festival is organized specifically for and by people with Indonesian roots or with a strong bond with Indonesia. The goal is to show art with a strong connection with or influence by Indonesia.

More about PindaKAAS on there website en on the YouTube channel AsianTraveller. More practical information will follow soon.

"All we can give are coffee & cigarettes"

2010-08-10T01:28:00.000-07:00

"All we can give (as presents) are coffee & cigarettes" said Pitra Hutomo (from the organization IVAA) when she visited me in Breda (NL). I told her that's a great thing, we can only give cheese & clogs (and weed, but it's not really a good present in most countries). But off course Indonesia has so much more to give and share. They have many traditions & crafts in which they produce beautiful things, like wood sculptures, Batik and Wayang kulit.When I came across this photo, I remembered an Indonesian tradition I really liked. Batik expert William Kwan showed me pictures of this tradition called Cethe.Cethe are cigarette decorated with coffee. The applying of the coffee on the cigarettes is called Nyethe. This craft is originally from Tulungagung in East Java. I haven't had the pleasure of seeing this craft in real life, but on the pictures I saw I noticed that the pattern are similar to Batik patterns. And I really like it that they combined two things I love (and aren't good for you) into a piece of art, so that's why I wanted to share this with you.
More about Cethe, the making and the tradition on the great blog called "Everything about Coffee, Chocolate and Cigarette". Coffee, Chocolate and Cigarette make u better relax and enjoy!

Batik Buketan

2010-07-29T02:24:00.000-07:00

Again I watched the movie "Marie Antoinette" by Sofia Coppola. The movie tells the impressive story of Marie Antoinette and the lifestyle of the France royalty. It shows the interior and clothing from those days and the beautiful & very luxurious motifs in Versailles.

This scene always catch my attention and now I realized why. The pattern in the background shows a lot of similarities with the pattern used in Batik Buketan. Buketan comes from the Dutch word "boeket" (bouquet in English). This floral pattern is typical for Batik Belanda(Dutch Batik), but for me it's not typically Dutch.During my stay in Indonesia I noticed that I favorite the Batiks made (designed) by Dutch women. In the two museums I visited I loved them the most. I didn't like that in all honestly, because I don't like the fact that we intruded this culture and made everything more the way we like it. And even I liked this Batik better.
I think for a great part it's because we can read and understand this pattern. If you know more about the meaning of the original Batik patterns, the Batik Buketan pattern seems very flat and layerless. On the other hand they have freshness (due to the colors) and are so different, new almost, but of course they were made a long time ago. Batik by Eliza van Zuylen

They say Batik Belanda is based on Delfts Blauw. I don't know a lot about Delftware, so I will get some books from the library before saying things I can't back up. But I would still like to say this about it.
The typical Dutch patterns are normally very abstract, the flowers are simplified like the pattern "Boerenbond". The Delftware is both abstract and figurative. The figurative porcelain are little stories. They show things like houses, windmills, cows & traditional clothing. But bouquets and exotic birds as in the Batik Buketan are not the first things you'll find in Delftware.I think the real inspiration for Batik Buketan is not our Delftware, but in fact the Chinese porcelain on which our Delftware is based in the first place, or you could say "borrowed" from.

Maybe it's time to visit Delft, I found out they have a museum there called Nusantara about Indonesia (it's closed now, but the shop is open) and I still have to visit an archaeologist I met and she knows a lot about pottery!

More about Batik Buketan and Batik Belanda in English on the blog "Classic Javanese Batik" and in Dutch here.

Batik on Facebook

2010-07-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

Lately I'm looking on Facebook for people that sell Batik online. There are a lot of "shops" selling Batik fabrics, clothing, bags and all kind of other things. A lot of these pages show pictures of women (and men) making Batik by cating, but it's not really clear if the Batiks are made by these women (mostly the pictures are copied of internet, I recognized pictures I used myself on my blog) and where the Batik, they are selling, come from.

How can you tell if a Batik is authentic? I don't want to imply that the Batik shown on these pages are printed, but it difficult to see with the online pictures if it's really made by canting or cap. However I think it's great that there is so much Batik online, the motifs and colours are beautiful and inspiring. When your "friends" with these Batikshops you'll see that the aim of it is to sell, and this should never be the case with artworks if you want to go for quality & beauty.

In the beginning there was a dot..

2010-07-22T10:41:00.000-07:00

then time pass, the dots evolve into an artwork of high sensibility..

ZomerGrensGeluiden

2010-07-12T08:30:00.000-07:00

Gisterenochtend waren ik & Koen de Wit te gast bij het radioprogramma ZomerGrensGeluiden op Stadsradio Breda. De radio host Deborah Jacobs, een zeer interessante zangeres, songwriter, bassist & percussionist uit Breda van Indische afkomst, had ons gevraagd om wat meer te vertellen over onze dagelijkse bezigheden. Zo kwam uiteraard Koen's muziek en ook zijn fotografie aanbod en speelde hij live on air klarinet. We hadden het over Vanuit bed, mijn project "De dans in een rijsttapijt" waar tevens een fragment va werd gedraaid, mijn huidige expositie "Paper in progress" en mijn interesse in Batik, de inspiratie die het mij geeft, de wens om in de leer te gaan in Indonesië en de huidige Batik industrie op Java.
De uitzending is te beluister via de Timeline op de site van Koen de Wit.

De reis van Batik / The journey of Batik

2010-07-07T08:09:00.000-07:00

Wallpaper-installation at the exhibition "Paper in progress". The exhibition opens Friday 9 Juli at 16h and will last till 25 Juli. The painting on the wallpaper is based on the famous "Batik Lasem". During my stay in Indonesia I visited the workshop in Lasem and bought a really beautiful Batik there. I also used the motif of the birds in my ricecarpet. The other wallpaper parts feature my bird named Batik. Real versus translated birds. This part of the installation I showed already during the Open Studio Route last year at Rosa.

Catalogus "Start 2006-2008" door het Fonds BKVB

2010-06-28T00:54:00.000-07:00

De catalogus van het Fonds BKVB met het werk van alle 368 kunstenaars, vormgevers en architecten die tussen 2006 en 2008 startstipendium ontvingen, heb ik gisteren opgehaald bij de opening van "Recht voor zijn raap" & "Op papier gezet" in het Centraal Museum in Utrecht. Het boek bevat een bladzijde met werk van de kunstenaars en een bladzijde met vragen waarop de kunstenaars antwoord moesten geven met beeld.Vraag linksboven "Wat deed je met het startsipendium?"Zelfgemaakte Batik "De reis naar Batik"

Daaronder "Wat is een belangrijk aspect van jouw werk?" Danseres Barbara van Kooten springt in een rijsttapijt. Try-out van de Dans in een rijsttapijt in Yogyakarta, Indonesië

Rechtsonder "Hoe zie je jezelf in de toekomst?" Batik lerend bij de dames in Jeruk.

De 2-delige catalogus, 800 pagina's, € 20 is te koop bij het Centraal Museum in Utrecht, of je kunt hem bestellen via het Fonds BKVB.

"Mayakovsky" door Husc & Koen de Wit

2010-04-30T02:50:00.001-07:00

Tijdens Proeflokaal #80 brachten Husc aka Sander Bolk & Koen de Wit een dadaïstische performance van de futuristische dichter Mayakovsky. Voor hun optreden maakte ik een objet trouvé stop-motion. Iets meer als 400 digitale foto's van 2006 t/m 2010 selecteerde ik, op kleur, verval, vorm, opbouw, reizen, lucht, natuur & tijdelijkheid, en plaatste ze in een loop. De foto's die ik op Java maakte zitten er ook in verwerkt.
Bij de opening van "2 sides of a story" betreden Husc & Koen de Wit nogmaals het podium met "Mayakovsky".

Old photos of Japan

2010-03-19T09:54:00.000-07:00

Een reis door het oude Japan!Pet Bird Shop, 1930
Ik vond deze foto's (postkaarten) op een hele mooie site, genaamd Old photos of Japan.Shimabara Tayuu, 1920

L'Indonesie comment elle vit

2010-03-11T13:27:00.000-08:00

Een korte zwart-wit film door de pionier van de Nederlandse cinema Willy Mullens toont Indonesië in de jaren 20. De later bijgevoegde audio in Frans is erg incorrect, maar de film geeft wel prachtig het oude Indonesië weer. Uiteraard ontbreekt de Batikcultuur niet in "L'Indonesie comment elle vit". In een paar beelden tonen ze het maakproces van Batik, het bestempelen (caps) van de stof en met canting. Er wordt verteld dat de oude ambacht door de Hollandse regering wordt stimuleerd...En dat de kunst er op vooruit gaat..De beelden zijn prachtig en het is mooi & vreemd tegelijkertijd dat dit alles er nog steeds zo uitziet.De film "L'Indonesie comment elle vit" staat op de DVD "Nederlands Indië, Van Nederlandsch Indië naar Indonesië", maar is ook online te bekijken.

Pembatik

2010-02-24T13:22:00.001-08:00

Opvallende overeenkomsten & tegenstellingen op het web. Tijdens het googlen trof ik een foto aan van een Batik makende mevrouw.Deze foto staat tevens ook op Wikipedia om Batik Tulis, het met een met de hand, canting, een Batiklap voorzien van was, toe telichten. Schokkend dat dit beeld hiervoor gekozen wordt, omdat voor mij dit beeld juist een vertegenwoordiging is van de ondergang van Batik. Het ultieme beeld naar toeristen toe, in een winkel vol Batik zit een vrouw Batik te maken om te illustreren dat de te koop zijnde Batiks echt zijn.In mijn boek (in wording) "De reis naar Batik, een vergeten industrie" illustreert deze foto (een andere vrouw, maar dezelfde plek) juist deze tegenstrijdigheid. Hoe is een fijne kunstvorm als Batik geworden tot een commercieel toeristen souvenir? De Batik die de ambacht, de techniek & kennis dreigt te verliezen en daarmee al zijn schoonheid.

The art of batik to be taught in schools

2010-02-01T00:35:00.001-08:00

Krantenartikel in The Jakarta Post

Slamet Susanto , The Jakarta Post , Yogyakarta | Fri, 01/29/2010 11:04 AM | The Archipelago
Batik reaches new heights in Bantul regency, Yogyakarta, with the administration planning to include batik as a school subject for elementary to senior high school students as of the next school year.

The regency also plans to require students and teachers to wear batik uniform three times a week, from Thursday to Saturday.

“We hope all schools can implement the new school subject properly to ensure that all students understand batik from an early age,” Bantul Regent Idham Samawi said.

He said he has issued a regulation requiring schools to include batik as a local school subject as part of its teaching model, which is based on local wisdom and culture.

Head of Bantul regency basic education office, Sahari, said the inclusion of batik as a school subject is intended to ensure of batik’s survival as a component of local culture.

He said his office would also work together with the Indonesian Art Institute to determine the standard of curriculum for batik as school subject.

“We’re currently working with universities on details to set the standard for the curriculum,” he said.
He said batik would likely be ready to be included as a school subject in the upcoming new school year.

Apart from batik, several schools have taken the lead in including local content in the school subjects.
Sriharjo elementary school in Imogiri, Bantul has taught karawitan and gamelan traditional music orchestra as well as batik-making to its students.

“Currently, we just start introducing karawitan and batik-making for first graders. Soon, the subjects will be given to all students,” said teacher Budi Haryoto.

He said the school cooperates with local group near the school for the subjects, including in providing gamelan orchestra and teachers.

“Learning about karawitan and gamelan is good to shape children’s characters,” said Ngadiran, the ka-rawitan and gamelan music teacher.

He said the key to teaching the subjects was patience.

“Children are impatient so we have to be patient.”

Wegwerpcamerafoto's laatste rolletje

2010-01-22T04:43:00.000-08:00

Taman Sari vanuit het zwembad gezien Pootje baden bij Taman Sari in het zwembad van de SultanBatikmakers in Yogya Straatmuzikanten geven een optreden bij het stoplicht Doorkijkje bij de Bird market in Yogya

Beyond the Dutch

2010-01-09T12:43:00.000-08:00

De expositie Beyond the Dutch in het Centraal museum in Utrecht toont een overzicht van Indonesische kunst van 1900 tot nu. In de tentoonstelling ligt de nadruk op de eigen stijl die zich (kon) ontwikkelde na de grote invloed van Europa en specifiek Nederland. Traditionele landschapschilderenOp het eerste oog een realistisch geschilderd tafereel, maar het schilderij toont de weg van de kunst Fijne tekeningen van een Gamelan orkest met danseressen Hedendaagse kunstenaars uit Indonesië komen ruim aanbod, maar ook Nederlandse kunstenaars met een Indonesische afkomst of een grote liefde voor Indonesië.The space of Si Kabayan/
Ruang Sikabayan van Tisna Sanjaya Linosnede drukkenWayang Machine, video installatie van Krisna Murti. Een wayang verhaal wordt verteld aan de hand van de video's.Morgen is de expo voor het laatst te bezichtigen.

Wegwerpcamerafoto's

2010-01-09T12:21:00.000-08:00

Eindelijk tijd gemaakt om ze in te scannen. Volgens mij zijn er nu nog een aantal bij de fotoschuur, maar die scan ik dan volgende week in. Een beetje opnieuw reizen tijdens dit koude weer! Een kleine selectie.Yogya vanuit bejak. Deze maakte ik op de eerste dag dat ik in Indonesië op pad ging.Ik en Denny op de brommerAchteropOnderweg naar Semarang Aris en Denny bij Rumah Seni Yaitu. Toen ik deze foto maakte vonden de jongens mij nog maar vreemd, later leerde ik ze pas beter kennen, maar ben erg blij dat ik de foto toen gemaakt heb!StreetArt in SemarangTerug in YogyaBatik lappen hangen buiten te drogen

Voortborduren & Wapens

2010-01-04T23:45:00.000-08:00

Een aantal weken terug was Pitra Hutomo van de organisatie IVAA (Indonesian Visual Art Archive) in Nederland. Ze zocht mij op in Breda. We praatten over mijn plannen om dit jaar terug te keren naar Indonesië. De komende weken ga ik mij richten op het op papier zetten van mijn plannen en om een mooi verslag te maken van mijn reis. Er moet nog een hoop gebeuren om nogmaals terug te gaan, maar dat ik terug wil staat vast!

Ik gaf Pitra een kleine rondleiding door Breda en bezocht met haar de expositie Voortborduren in het Breda's Museum. Ik verwachte veel typisch Hollands geborduurde klederdracht, maar Pitra wees naar de klederdracht en vertelde mij dat het uit Sumatra kwam. Ook de proeflappen zaten vol met geborduurde patronen die ik herkende uit Batiklappen.Zoals deze tekens/patronen. Een ervan is William Kwan's lievelingsbatikpatroon! Dit symbool is een heilig symbool uit het hindoeïsme en zie je ook vaak terug in Batik.Het opvallendste was toch wel de Batiklap uit Indonesië die afgewerkt was met een geborduurde rand. Even als de kantenlap uit Indonesië met een chinese draak erin.Na het museum lunchte we en bezochten we de Grote Kerk. Hier was net de opbouw bezig van de komende expositie Woord & Wapen. Een overzicht van alle wapenschilden uit Breda en omgeving...De expositie opent 15 januari en ik verzoek iedereen om uit tepuzzelen welke wapens ik heb gebruikt voor mijn werk "Heerlijkheden" voor de Grafiekmap De Brabantse Ring!Morgen naar Beyond the Dutch in Utrecht, dus hou mijn blog in de gaten voor foto's!

Synchroniciteit deel IV Bowerbird

2009-12-04T09:21:00.000-08:00

Tijdens mijn tweede expositie rondom "Tour des poulets" in de StadsGalerij Breda in November 2008, vertelde een man mij dat mijn werk hem ergens aan deed denken. Niet aan een kunstenaar, maar aan een vogel. De Bowerbird of in het Nederlands, Prieelvogel.
De kleine vogeltjes maken prachtige nesten en decoreren die met vloerkleedjes bestaande uit allerlei gevonden materialen in hun omgeving. Bladeren, besjes en takken leggen ze precies zo neer om de vrouwtjes te imponeren en verleiden.

Een tijdje was ik flink geobsedeerd door deze tropische vogel en nu moet ik er weer aan denken. Want (tropische) vogels zijn toch wel een terugkerend gegeven in mijn werk en dan eentje die zelf kleedjes maakt van (organische) materialen..
Mijn eerste rijsttapijt maakte ik om de vogels in mijn achtertuin eens op een andere, ook voor mij, mooie manier te voeren. Dit groeide later uit tot de Tour des poulets, waar kippen een rijsttapijt mochten opeten.Toen ik de opnames terug keek van de tryout voor een Dans in een rijsttapijt viel mij mijn blik op de tattoo in Barbara's nek.Zou het iets te maken hebben met al die uren vogeltjes kijken vroeger met mijn opa?

Even iets anders, Bio-fashion door verschillende ontwerpers

2009-12-01T02:16:00.000-08:00

Een "Eco vriendelijke" modeshow werd eind 2008 gehouden in Cali, Colombia. Met bloemen en (bananen) bladeren werden verschillende kostuums, door verschillende ontwerpers gemaakt. Het "werk" hieronder genaamd "A Walking Garden" is zeker mijn favoriet.Door ontwerper Hugo Alberto Puentes
Door Colombiaanse ontwerper Cristhian VargasDoor Colombiaanse ontwerper Angela AponteDoor Colombiaanse ontwerper Iveth Jaramillo

Synchroniciteit deel III Tapa

2009-11-28T07:53:00.001-08:00

Kunstenares Emmy Dijkstra (en beheerder en voorzitter van Grafische Werkplaats Raaf, waar ik begin dit jaar heb leren zeefdrukken) was in Frankrijk toen ik in Indonesië was. Ze had daar een residence in Zuid-Frankrijk van een maand. Toen ik terug was nam ik een kijkje op haar site www.emmydijkstra.nl om te kijken hoe haar reis was bevallen. Ik zag dat ze erg mooie nieuwe werken had. Maar nog opvallender was de overeenkomst tussen onze reis en ons werk.
Tijdens haar residence heeft ze zich gericht op kleding maken. Ze bedrukte papier met bonte, kleurrijke patronen die zij baseerde op dingen die haar opvielen in haar omgeving.Zo baseerde ze dit jurkje op drogend mais wat ze bij mensen aan hun plafon zag hangen. Deze wending in Emmy's werk is zeer verrassend, vooral ook door het kleur gebruik.
Daarnaast bezocht ze de tentoonstelling: Tapa.Emmy over de tentoonstelling:"het was een tentoonstelling van kleding gemaakt van de schors van een bepaalde boom. Deze veelal traditionele kledij werd en wordt gemaakt door de volkeren van de eilanden in de Pasific Ocean. De kleding is meestal bedrukt met herhaalde patronen zoals vormen van planten of dieren. Heel interessant omdat Liesbeth Verhoeven en ik onze kostuums doormiddel van sjablonen bedrukt hebben. De Tapa wordt vaak bedrukt met bepaalde kleuren zoals bruin, rood en zwart. Wanneer de mensen de smalle stroken schors verzameld hebben wordt deze vochtig gemaakt en dan maken zij de stroken breder door er letterlijk op te slaan. De kleding wordt vaak gedragen bij een traditionele gelegenheid.".

Tapa wordt dus ook op Java gemaakt. Al bladerend door het boek "Indonesia" die ik van Susan kreeg, zag ik dat ik op sommige plekken al briefjes had gestopt, ter inspiratie van de Grafiekmap opdracht. Mocht dat nou precies bij een bladzijde zitten over stof gemaakt van boomschors.

Even iets anders, Hawaii patronen door Alfred Shaheen

2009-11-28T06:50:00.000-08:00

Patroon-patroon-patroon-patroon door Alfred ShaheenRond kijkend op het internet, zoekend naar batik, patronen en traditionele dansen en de bijbehorende kostuums, kom je soms onverwacht ook erg toffe andere interssante dingen tegen. Zoals Alfred Shaheen's ontwerpen.
Alfred Shaheen (1922-2008) was in de jaren 50 de belangrijkste ontwerper van Hawaii. Hij maakte prachtige jurken, bikini's en de al om bekende Hawaii shirts. Het is mooi om te zien hoe hij de traditionele patronen verwerkt in cocktaildresses, maar ook in lampenkappen.De patronen worden op de stof geschilderd en gezeefdrukt.

Batik Carnival in Solo

2009-11-20T06:42:00.000-08:00

Dat zou ik toch wel graag in het echt willen zien...

Synchroniciteit deel II Batikdag

2009-11-20T04:18:00.000-08:00

Sinds dit jaar is Batik de officiële heritage/erfenis van Indonesië. Na een lange spannende strijd met Maleisië over deze ambacht, mag Indonesië vanaf dit jaar voortaan zeggen "Batik is van ons!".
Om dit te vieren, hebben ze 2 oktober uitgeroepen tot Batikdag. Iedereen viert die dag Batik, draagt het en ik hoorde zelfs verhalen van mensen die omdat ze Batik droegen in het vliegtuig korting kregen op hun vlucht.
En ik vind het natuurlijk ontzettend leuk dat Batik gevierd wordt op mijn verjaardag! Zoals een aantal mensen daar zeiden over dat ik Batik wil leren en jarig ben op de Batikdag, It must be meant to be!

Synchroniciteit deel I Gelatik

2009-11-14T05:17:00.000-08:00

Dit merk (papiermerk) is een van de populairste wat betreft notitieboekjes in Indonesië. Eerst zag ik, zittend in een taksi, bij iemand uit zijn tas een groen hoekje steken. Een dag later was ik in een eettentje. Toen ik ging afrekenen wist ik niet wat ik zag. Op de toonbank lag een boek met hetzelfde Batikpatroon, maar dat niet alleen, het merk van het boekje is Gelatik. Nou mag ik nu toevallig een rijstvogel hebben, gelatik in het indonesisch dus, die Batik heet, en een reis naar Batik gemaakt hebben :). Maar zoals ze zeggen "toeval bestaat niet".

7 november Klokkespijs

2009-11-14T05:07:00.000-08:00

Mijn terugkomst ingeluid met de radioshow Klokkespijs gehost door interimhost Koen de Wit. Deze show is zoals Koen zegt meer het verhaal behind the blog, maar ook gewoon een kort & bondig reisverslag (een maand in een uur :)) met geluidsfragmenten uit Java erdoor verweven. Dus mocht je hem nog niet geluisterd hebben live op Radio Centraal, kun je hem nu beluisteren via Koen's Timeline. Enjoy!

Akhir kepergian

2009-11-14T04:56:00.000-08:00

Einde van de reisBen nu al weer wat dagen terug in Nederland, 11 eigenlijk nog maar. Eindelijk weer met twee voeten geland, had toch wel even een flinke jetlag, Hollandse verkoudheid en een hoop indrukken te verwerken. De reis naar Batik is deels voorbij, maar deels nog maar net begonnen, akhir kepergian dan memulai baru.en het begin van een nieuwe

Dance in a ricecarpet

2009-11-08T14:33:00.000-08:00

On my last day in Yogyakarta, Indonesia we did a tryout for my upcoming project "Dance in a ricecarpet" with Barbara van Kooten.

Java biru

2009-11-06T04:04:00.000-08:00

Voordat ik naar Java vertrok kocht ik een vrolijke zomerbroek in knalaquablauw. Ik vreesde dat deze wellicht iets te was voor Indonesië..

Foto door Denny Antyo

2009-11-05T08:34:00.001-08:00