March 26, 2021
Batik Stand Online - The Online Batik Stand
March 5, 2021
Fangirling over Oey Soe Tjoen
High on my wish-list of must-visit and must buy is Batikworkshop Oey Soe Tjoen. In the realm of Batik this is a very well-known name. It is one of the few Batikworkshops that is strongly connected to colonial history and still produces high quality high demand Batiks today.
I was planning to write on this for a while. I got two books in beginning of December and I was like, I will write when I have time to sit down and read them. Because I have a lot of reading and data processing going on for my researchproject next to starting up 4 collaboration projects, I did not manage to do more than flipping through the books. So today I though, I will just start this post and make this shout out to the third generation successor of Oey Soe Tjoen, Widianti Widjaja, nickname Kiem Lian.
First a little more about Oey Soe Tjoen, Buketan & books. The first book I bought on Batik, 'Batik Creating an Identity' by Lee Chor Lin, included beautiful pieces by Oey Soe Tjoen and every book I bought after that. Even the books that were more focussed on Indo-European influence on Batik like 'Batik Belanda' by Veldhuisen and 'Fabric of Enchantment'. This has in a large part to do with the use of the 'Buketan' motif, the bouquet of (wild) flowers, on many of the Oey Soe Tjoen Batiks. The Oey Soe Tjoen family have always been working with Batik. At the end of the 19th century it starts with Oey Khing Tik and his wife, Siauw Tik Nio, as the first generation. The couple worked as batik traders. They did not make their own batik, but purchased Batik Kain and sarongs directly from pembatiks living in the Kedungwuni region, and re-sold them. Eventually they started producing their own batiks; Tulis, Cap and Kombinasi (Combination of Tulis and Cap). Their son Oey Soe Tjoen followed in their footsteps. Oey Soe Tjoen began to learn the business at a young age by helping his parents. He married in 1925 with Kwee Tjoen Giok Nio (more often called Kwee Nettie). Kwee Tjoen Giok Nio parents sold natural dye materials. In the beginning Oey Soe Tjoen would have used natural dyes, but their batiks are far better known for their bright colours in synthetic dyes.***
Oey Soe Tjoen started making imitations of the very popular motif ‘Buketan’, bouquet, after the designs of Indo-European Batik entrepreneurs Eliza van Zuylen (1863-1947). From the beginning of the 20th century until today the Buketan motif is very populair on Batiks from Pekalongan (ID). The tradition was starting, according to Dutch scholars, by Eliza van Zuylen, nickname Lies, and her sister Christina van Zuylen, nickname Tina. Tina's husband had a shop from which he sold school supplies, while his wife Tina sold floral arrangements aka bouquets. At some point they added Batik to their items to sell and when this went well Lien Metzelaar, another famous Batik entrepreneur, 'lent' Tina three Batikmakers. Elisa van Zuylen at some point also got three Batikmakers and around 1900's made a workshop at the Heerenstraat.* Eliza van Zuylen, or Tina, might have been the inventors of the Buketan motif, it was the Peranakan-Chinese Batik entrepreneurs in the same region who brought it to another level, and Oey Soe Tjoen was one of them. He added his own effect to the design creating a kind of shade in the flowers leaves. A story goes that Van Zuylen tried to create this effect herself but couldn’t.*** Emphasised in this juicy quote from 'Fabric of Enchantment': "While Oey started by imitating Lies van Zuylen's bouquets, he is the one who created a unique three-dimensional effect, which was perfectly copied by other Peranakan entrepreneurs {...}Van Zuylen herself tried to imitate the effect after 1935 for a Peranakan customer but did not succeed".*
After Oey Soe Tjoen died in 1976, his son, Muljadi Widjaja, and daughter-in-law, Istianti Setiono, ran the shop with his widow Kwee, still signing the batiks with Oey’s name. Kwee passed away in 1996, leaving the business to the second generation to run it further.
Muljadi Widjaja and Istianti Setiono had three children. Their daughter Widianti Widjaja was born on November 23, 1976, and was taught the dyeing techniques by her father. Muljadi Widjaja passed away in 2002 and the family business was carried on by his widow Istianti Setiono.
Today the batikworkshop is run by their daughter Widianti Widjaja and she continued producing the classic Batiks in the legacy of her parents and grandparents. She experiments with developing new designs, but always including the aesthetic elements that had become the trademark of Oey Soe Tjoen Batik.***
With going to the Oey Soe Tjoen workshop on my wish-list and returning to Java being somewhere in the future, I got very excited when the news came a book on Oey Soe Tjoen would be published, again. The first book that was written on this Batikworkshop was by no other than my Batik-mentor Pak William Kwan. It was only published only limited edition and sold out before I knew it was out. Luckily last year the book got re-published and also a new book was made. I could swap the two Oey Soe Tjoen books with two Dutch published books on Batik. I managed to get the special edition and when I opened it, I literally screamed of joy! The book includes a small Batik by Oey Soe Tjoen! So although I couldn't visit and shop at the workshop, I did get one! I am still over the moon with it!
I mentioned Widianti Widjaja, the current boss of Oey Soe Tjoen, also in my recent previous post 'Taking Batik Online' and she truly is part of the current online development we see in Batik. Next to being a guest in all kinds of Zooms and IG lives, she uses her own social media to post pictures and video of the making process. Which is an amazing thing. The quality of her work is very high. She has Batikmakers, but she makes Batik herself and does the entire dye-process. Very similar to Ibu Ramini of Batikworkshop KUB Srikandi. They are not bosses, they are Batik! And it is amazing to get in invite in this process through the internet. And not by someone who visits, but by Widianti herself! So go check it out on www.instagram.com/widianti_lian/
To enjoy more Widianti Widjaja, check out the IG interview aNERDspective 30 by aNERDgallery. On the website of aNERDgallery you find the full interview written out in English.
And on IG Live with Widianti Widjaja on Lawasan Batik
And on Youtube in the recent webinar 'Batik: Warisan Budaya Peranakan - Nggosipin Tionghoa Yuk! Pertemuan Keduapuluhsembilan'
or here in an interview done by Weltmuseum, 'Jani Kuhnt-Saptodewo in an interview with Descendants of Oey Soe Tjoen'
To enjoy more Oey Soe Tjoen, buy the books, also through aNERDgallery, or look at the pieces in the NMvW collection
or in the online exhibition 'Singapore, Sarong Kebaya and Style: Peranakan Fashion - Discover the style of the Peranakan – a hybrid of interactions between people from Asia and Europe' on Google Arts & Culture
To read more about the Buketan motif, check out my previous post 'Pattern Edition Batik Statement: Buketan'
* From 'Fabric of Enchantment' and 'De batikkerij Van Zuylen'
** Blogpost title 'Fangirling over'; a girl or woman who is an extremely or overly enthusiastic fan of someone or something. fangirl. verb. fangirled; fangirling; fangirls.
*** Information from Pak William Kwan as mentioned in his book Oey Soe Tjoen - Duta Batik Peranakan
February 8, 2021
How a red flood in Pekalongan reveals many issues, but blames Batik
While Europe was getting ready for a snowstorm, news came in from Indonesia that the streets in Pekalongan were flooded with red coloured water. The first images appeared online on Twitter with messages about 'the end of days'. After warnings about this 'Fake news', different news platforms started to share the story under titles like 'Indonesian village turns red as floods hit batik-manufacturing hub', 'Felrode overstroming bij Indonesisch dorp met batik-fabriek' and 'A surreal blood red river inundated the Indonesian village of Jenggot after floods hit a nearby batik factory on Saturday'. The news is not Fake, however how it is told, who is to blame and how it is combined with other news, is very interesting and worrying. In this post we take a closer look at how a 'bloodred coloured flood' reveals many issues and how fingers are pointed at the wrong 'bad guy'.
The first I heard about it was through a Whatsapp from someone in Singapore on Saturday afternoon. Soon after that message, many people started posting about it online and one after another mediaplatform brought this "news". It was mostly the same text and video from Twitter:
A surreal, blood-red river inundated the Indonesian village of Jenggot after floods hit a nearby batik factory on Saturday, causing a frenzy on social media.
"I am so afraid if this photo gets into the bad hands of hoax spreaders," said a Twitter user Ayah E Arek-Arek. "Fear mongering narratives about signs that it is the end of the world, bloody rain, etc."
Pekalongan is a city known for manufacturing batik, a traditional Indonesian method of using wax to resist water-based dyes to depict patterns and drawings, usually on fabric.
It is not uncommon for rivers in Pekalongan to turn different colours. Bright green water covered another village north of the city during a flood last month.
"Sometimes there are purple puddles on the road too," said Twitter user Area Julid, who claimed to be from the area.
The head of Pekalongan disaster relief, Dimas Arga Yudha, confirmed that the photos being circulated were real.
"The red flood is due to the batik dye, which has been hit by the flood. It will disappear when it mixes with rain after a while," he said.
Less than a month ago, two large landslides hit a village in Indonesia's West Java province, destroying property and killing at least 13 people.
Thousands of users on Twitter shared photos and videos of the village south of Pekalongan city in Central Java being flooded by crimson-coloured water, which some social media users said reminded them of blood.
(source: Article Flooding turns Indonesian village waters red with factory dye on CBC News, 6 February 2021)
Pekalongan is a city known for manufacturing batik, a traditional Indonesian method of using wax to resist water-based dyes to depict patterns and drawings, usually on fabric
It is not uncommon for rivers in Pekalongan to turn different colours. Bright green water covered another village north of the city during a flood last month
"The red flood is due to the batik dye, which has been hit by the flood. It will disappear when it mixes with rain after a while"
Less than a month ago, two large landslides hit a village in Indonesia's West Java province, destroying property and killing at least 13 people
January 28, 2021
Cinta Batik & Dual Heritage - Introducing Lara of the brand Dewi
I have been following Lara on Instagram for a while now. When she asked me for an interview on her site (read it here '#DewiMeets: Sabine Bolk), I thought it would be nice to also make a blogpost about her and her brand Dewi in return. Her love for Batik and how she shares it online is wonderful. It was also great to talk with her in person, we talked for 2 hours and honestly probably could share Batik stories all day. So I am happy to introduce Lara of the brand Dewi here on my blog.
She went to Yogyakarta (and the small island Una-Una, Sulawesi) during the Winter months end of 2019, beginning 2020. She luckily returned right before the Pandemic started. She had the plan to buy Batik in advance so she could start-up Dewi when she returned to Vienna, Austria.
Lara makes all kinds of accessories like hip bags, scrunchies, hair ties and since last year face masks. I have a lovely face mask by her with ‘Beras tumpah’ in black.
She focus on accessories for now so she doesn’t have to work with different sizes. She does want to experiment with clothing that doesn’t just fit a certain body size in the near future. I love this, because the Batik clothing I have, made in Jakarta or made by Guave, are also like this. I can wear them regardless my own weight or the layers I might want to wear underneath. This make them wearable for a long time and through many seasons.
Lara is currently based in Vienna and here she noticed that not many people know Batik. It is very different from the Netherlands, many people know Batik here, and not just the people from the big Indo-European community.
There is in Austria a big interest in craft, so there is a market for handmade products. Lara uses her site and Instagram, and before the pandemic craftmarkets, to introduce people to Batik. When she was in Jogja a friend of hers, who is a videographer, made great footage of her and the making process of Batik. Check out the videos on her Insta and Youtube
Her dual heritage was a topic that was and maybe still is very sensitive to talk about. She recently shared her story on her experience in an article on Indojunkie (an English version will be published on Lara’s blog soon).
She tells me it took her two months to finally be ready to share it. She got great respons to it and also messages from many people that had similar experiences.
We talked about how strange it is we live in a world were we ourselves do not get the freedom of identifying as we want. We get put on labels by the outside. It is too common to question someone’s beloning. Which is very hurtful.
You should be free to express which heritage, roots and gender you feel you would like to express at any point of time. And not be confronted by others that just want to point out they think you are different.
Growing up myself I was told a lot I was ‘the other’, yet I always felt accepted in some way and I believed that being different was actually a plus. Being the same as everybody else never got anybody anywhere… This being said, I do wish I was made aware of discrimination and racisme more clearly. I never understood when I was young why some of my friends were being picked on, to later find out why. When I learned more about this, I felt so ashamed that I at that time I wasn’t aware and it made me so sad. Being raised so called ‘colourblind’ sounds idealistic, but we should really teach our children about racisme and discrimination. We should acknowledge this factors play a big role in our society. So it is good that this topic is being discussed more and happy Lara also shares her story through her brand Dewi.
During Lara’s longer stay in Jogja in the Winter of 2019/2020 she not only bought Batik, she also learned Javanese dance. She had the wish to at least learn one traditional Javanese dance.
She studied with a teacher for two months and learned the dance ‘Nawung Sekar’. It is a basic dance that is often the first dance you get taught. Although it is a basic dance, it turned out it was very precise. Every placement, even of each toe, had to be exactly right.
Lara not just studied the dance, she also made an amazing short video at a temple complex near Jogja. She bought a full traditional outfit for it including a made-to-fit headpiece. She looks absolutely stunning! You can watch the video on her Instagram
Dance lessons
Dance Nawung Sekar performed by Lara in traditional dance wear
For more on Lara and her brand Dewi check out her website www.laradewi.com
And aNERDgalery just posted an interview with Lara also in the aNERDspective series ‘aNERDspective Ep. 27: Dancing the Winter Away, One MM at a Time’
January 19, 2021
Taking Batik Online
Three platforms that do a better job at featuring the makers and are an Online Must Follow are the following:
- aNERDgallery with their series aNERDspective. Tony of aNERDgallery has every time lovely guests who either make, work, sell or in some other way are connected with Batik. Also Sustainability is a returning welcome topic. I was a guest twice myself. We did a IG live two weeks ago reflecting on 2020 and looking forward to our 2021 plans, rewatch it here!
- Samadaya, the long awaited online platform of my Batikmentor Pak William Kwan. Through their website and on Instagram they share more on the research they did these past 10 years (or is it alreday 20 years?) and on their future plans
- Lawasan Batik, Miss Elok who calls herself a Batik storyteller (wish I claimed that title haha) has done this past year IG live Batik talks with like every Batikworkshops and organisation active on Java! It was great seeing so many familiar faces and also get little tours in workplaces. I should be jealous, but I just feel happy someone is doing this and sharing this!
As for Batik being sold online, it is already 10 years ago in 2010 I wrote about Batik being sold online and how difficult it is to know whether it is handmade or printed, and if the Facebook pages in this case used just images found online of Batikmakers or they actually knew the makers personally. This is of course still the case and this last years I saw the number of brands selling printed textiels under the name 'Batik' grow and grow. A year ago I shared my thoughts on this on Instagram again and reached out to sellers and brands to reclaim the term 'Batik'. Unesco under which Batik is protected as an intangible heritage is very clear on what we can call 'Batik'. By reclaiming the term for handmade Batik, we make it easier for buyers to actually support Batik. I spoke about this already often and I am happy there are more and more brands making a stand with me. I feel very grateful that some brands I reached out to, now state clearly what kind of textiles they use, whether it is handmade by canting or cap or is just a printed textile with batikmotifs. It is an important step and I hope all the new brand thats sprouted during the lockdown will take the time to inform themselves and their customers. We can only truly support Batik and celebrate heritage if we stay away from Fast Fashion printed fakes!
Another new online things with Batik is sales on Instagram by Batikshops on Java. These shops often rely on either big resellers or on (local) tourists and of course on people that need Batik (clothing) for their work, parties and events. Since we are not going anywhere, this has a huge impacted on the Fashion industry worldwide. Although the Batik market is a lot smaller than that of Fast Fashion. Batik is definitely still part of this system. Now that not many people buy new handmade Batik, sellers are using online platforms like Instagram to do sales online. You can often shop by taking a screenshoot of the Batik item you want and whatsapp it to the shop. Of course this is just for people in Indonesia, but it is great to see that all these online options are helpful in presenting Batik. Of course buying Batik this way will never replace the joy of buying Batiks directly from a Batikmaker or at a Batikshop, but it is great to see these options are embraced and seem the work well.
Taking Batik Online is something I already did with my blog and I am very thankful for all other online possibilities. I myself could recently do a talk for the Dutch Traditional Wear organisation (Kostuumvereniging, watch it here it is in Dutch) and I got added to the Craft Council Craftmap & they shared my story also in an interview (also in Dutch).
For now keep visiting my blog, a new post is coming soon!
Stay safe, stay home, stay healthy!
Virtual hugs,
Sabine
October 23, 2020
How to get Batik into This New Normal
In a time it seems everything is taking place online it has been quiet on my blog. Not that I didn’t write or because you haven’t visit. The opposite. My blog has been visited so much, especially in the beginning of the pandemic and I am happy with all the new readers that reached out! Yesterday I joined this amazing online launch on a fully virtual made Batik exhibition and I thought I needed to write an update here on these past few months.
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Opening of Virtual Exhibition by Kibas |
Batik under covid
When Covid became a global pandemic it had a huge impact on Batik. The sales in Batik dropped and most Batikworkshops on Java stopped producing for several months. Batik depends, must like other local crafts unfortunately, on tourism. Not just tourists from abroad, but also Indonesians themselves. For example Lasem and Pekalongan are both cities that have many people visiting just to buy Batik and of course they combine it with trying out the food specialities and going to Museums or events. I saw myself last year how Lasem is catering more and more to tourism and it had a great positive impact. Old buildings, like Rumah Merah or Rumah Oei, have been restored and turned into cultural hotspots with great guest-rooms. Cultural Batiktrips got organised by different parties, like Awesome Lasem, were a group of people would just hop from Batikworkshop to Batikworkshop while enjoying nature and food.
Most Batikworkshop have specific deals with specific parties, like resellers or shops, but also organisations that do events and tours. It is great for Batikowners and makers since they can focus on making Batik and not on the marketing. For all parties connected to a Batikworkshop they can connect different businesses and all make profit from the growing interest in Bartik. However as soon as Covid happened, it showed how fragile this system is. If sells dropped and people can not travel, all parties get affected. However Batikmakers get affected the most, they can not do anything else then just produce Batik. And if they stop, all else stops also. For the resellers, shops and organisations there is little they can do if they can't sell any Batiks...Sooo it was very good to see that actually some organisations really made an effort in providing income for the Batikmakers. A lot start making facemasks, but also just did fundraising campaigns so Batikmakers could get paid even without Batiks being sold. Kesengsem Lasem were I gave my talk last year was fast to response to the pandemic. They focussed first mostly on giving informations on wearing masks and on how to disinfecting working surfaces so people could continue working safely. They went around town giving cleaning products to batikmakers, but also foodsellers. It shows such dedication to keeping your whole community safe. Really inspiring!
Zoom/Talk/Insta lives
Of course most organisations turn online. Which is great for me, but I wonder how great it is for the Batikmakers. In the talks from Indonesia I see mostly the same people, often the bigger Batik bosses and heads of all kinds of yayasans (stichting/foundation). Smaller Batikworkshop owners and batikmakers aren't really invited to talk Batik. However interesting topics do get discussed, mostly in Bahasa Indonesia and sometimes in English. One question keeps popping up: How to get Batik into This New Normal? Batik is under constant threat; Competing with the Fast Fashion Fake printed textiles called 'Batik Print' and it is getting extinct since most Batikmakers are above 50 years old and younger generations see no future in working long laborful days for little payment. Batik need to become fair, safe and independent. It need to become sustainable. Not in the future, but Now.
And so are much other things in our lives that need to become sustainable, it is all connected and we are running out of time. Of course in this moment are hands are also partly bound. There is only so much you can do from afar and reaching the Batikmakers was difficult even before this pandemic ruled the world.
The New Normal
I was invited by Modemuze to be one of the bloggers for their exhibition 'The New Normal' in collaboration with OSCAM. I didn't write on Batik, but I was happy to put some of the feelings and thoughts on current events on digital paper and reflect on the role fashion plays in it all. My reflecting post Creating shared experiences at a distance focus on the work shown by Karim Adduchi and other pieces from the Modemuze collection that are made from a same drive. Looking at what people make together even without being able to actually be together works inspiring and healing.
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Creating shared experiences at a distance at The New Normal at OSCAM |
A work, or well a dress, that I highlight in my blog, I saw in the exhibition 'Mode op de Bon' in the Verzetsmuseum, also in Amsterdam. The exhibition showed the creative and often sustainable solution people came up with to be able to wear nice, even fashionable cloths during war time. One dress stood out right away. It is a full length Gala looking dress which from up-close turns out the be made from all small patches. The dress made during the Second World war is made from no less than 1280 'silks'(‘zijdjes’). These pieces of silk were giving as a kind of promotional gift with Turmac cigarettes. This specific series has all kinds of Wayang figures on it. Just collecting enough pieces to make the dress would have been already a challenge. It is unknown if the dress was ever worn or who even made it. I like to think this project most have given the maker comfort and hope, imagining the first party in freedom were this dress could have been worn.
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Dress from Turmac silks collection Museum Rotterdam, inv. nr. 68832 Photo Sabine Bolk |
The exhibition at OSCAM in Amsterdam (NL) will be on display till 2 November so go check it out and on Modemuze you can read all the blogs including mine (in Dutch)
Staying Connected
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My Bday Batik Day Zoom - if you would like to watch, please send me an email |
While this year moved very slow, it also moved surprisingly fast. When in March are 'intelligent lockdown' started my agenda became very empty. I though I would have much time to focus on my ongoing researchproject Re-telling the history of the (Indo-)European influence on Batik, but it was hard to work without access to the collection, online database and much needed guidance. So the first weeks I spend mostly making plans to fill my week; I made an stopmotion, I discussed my Art in my home, I was on IG live at aNERDgallery, made an onlineprogramma for the cancelled Tong Tong Fair together with Guave and much more.
I am good at keeping myself busy, but all the cancelling, replanning and recancelling is taking its toll on my motivation. I am trying to focus again on my research and on the works I am making inspired by this research. One of these works, I started last year. The idea was to creating a Batik based on a classic Java Print by Vlisco and hereby return it to it original form. The original form of this specific Java Print being a Batik Tiga Negeri. Negeri from Negara which mean Country and Tiga meaning Three. So believed was that these types of Batiks were produced in three regions on Java in the 19th century in three different styles. My plan was to send the Batik to different Batikmakers/Artist each making one layer of the batik, adding one colour. So that it again produced in three places, but now three countries. The first copy I made I brought to Java were Miss Siti continued on it. In February, just before the lockdown, the Guave ladies picked the pieces up at Miss Siti in Batang. They are so great!
I just finished a second Batik, today I will boil out the wax and this piece will go first to the USA. It goes much slower this project then planned, but I am happy with this idea of working together abroad and reflecting on this history, the colonial and the textile trade. So a little sneak peak for now.
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Making of |
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After dyeing, but still with wax |
Saya harap semua orang tetap sehat dan sampai jumpa lagi, Hati-hati dan Kembali!
Stay safe, saty healthy and take care of yourself & your surroundings,
Kind regards & warm wishes,
Sabine