European/Chinese lace kebaya and Little Red Ridng Hood
Fashionshow 'Pada suatu hari' by BINhouse
Photo by me
In between building up the exhibition 'Masa depan Batik | Future of Batik', I got to do a lot of Jakarta things, things I almost only do in Jakarta like hanging out in malls and going to fashionshows. It is not my favourite thing in the world, specifically the malls, but it is the best thing to do when you want to hang out with people in Jakarta.
I was lucky got to hang out my first weekend with Stefanie Patricia. Have know her online for a while now, and she reach out a few days before I went if I could bring a book. Could get the book to still fit, so my first meeting was with her in a mall. Together with some family that was also in town we shared a meal. The next day, Stefanie kindly arranged for me to meet with fashiondesigner Auguste Soesastro. His recent exhibition showing 15th years of work was a huge succes.
KRATON is Auguste Soesastro's Fashion House established in 2008.Kraton emerges to promote the best aspects of Indonesian arts and cultures to the internationalfashion world, to ensure the survival of Indonesian unique heritage for future generations.
Auguste not only gets inspirations from Indonesian Arts and culture, he also comes from a long line of batikmakers on both sides of his family. It was so odd that I already looked into one of these makers because of a piece still owned by a family in the Netherlands, but couldn't find much about them. How wonderful Stefanie introduced me. I am looking forward to find more signed pieces for him when I return home. An exciting part of batik history to uncover!
On Tuesday morning I was invited to Museum Tekstil. The talkshow with the title ‘Masa depan artisan Batik’ was suppose to feature me as a speaker, but because of wrong scheduling I had to decline. I made it after all, and could still invite the audience to come to the exhibition. They even played the short video of the pembatiks introducing themselves, which was really nice!
The talkshow itself wasn’t great. I am always missing the voice of the pembatiks, the makers. There was talk about AI, about machines making Batik Tulis, about the Batik masters, who have already passed away or are the last generation. It is like we are stuck in the past and can only fantasize about a very distant futuristic future. Not a practical close by one, in which we address the issues at hand, such as sustainability in the making process, making sure makers have a clean, safe and good payed job, so a new generation would consider to continue making.
Only when the audience started discussing the urgency to protect handmade batik ~ because robots are not making handmade batik ~ it got a lot of agreement of the panel and applause.
Jakarta Muslim Fashion Week
John Ang and me otw to the Fashionshow
On the 19th John Ang arrived in Jakarta. It was soooo nice to hang out, although my schedule didn’t leave much room for that. We went to two fashionshows. The first one, new to me, the Jakarta Muslim Fashionweek. The second, on 24 October at the Jakarta Fashionweek, was the show ‘Pada suatu hari’ by BINhouse in collab with Auguste Soesastro. It was so kind of him to give me an invite, and what a show it was. It was so much fun, and sexy and even emotional. The looks were amazing, going from very classic sarong kebaya to very modern, but always with a unique twist in either colour, collar or combination. The whole ‘love to love you baby’ runway was a pure gift. I loved it so much, it was so edgy. Auguste’s part was much more chique, the models walking on this sad goodbye song. There were several looks I liked right away, not surprisingly worn by my favorite model from JFW in 2016!
Fashionshow 'Pada suatu hari' by BINhouse
Photo by me
Fashionshow 'Pada suatu hari' by BINhouse at JFW
Photo by me
Auguste Soesastro in collab with BINhouse at JFW
Photo by me
Fashionshow 'Pada suatu hari' by BINhouse at JFW
Photo by me
Fashionshow 'Pada suatu hari' by BINhouse at JFW
Photo by me
Next to hanging out with John Ang, got to meet two other textile enthousiast, researcher, even batik activists you might say. Got to visit Asmoro Damais and Caecilia Adinoto.
Asmoro Damais is the daughter of a French historian and a Javanese mother, Asmoro was brought up in a household deeply involved with culture. After spending some years in Europe where she attended various art and language classes, Asmoro returned to Jakarta and began to work as a designer for shoes and handicrafts. Meanwhile, her older brother Adji, was collecting artifacts and experimenting with developing Pekalongan batik. Since Asmoro showed an obvious interest in old batik, Adji’s suppliers began to bring her their old batiks. This was the beginning of Asmoro’s journey through the history of batik
Having several books at home by her, it was so wonderful to finally meet. I hope I can return again, since I hope to dive into the kebaya with her and her son. But it was now already great, sitting in this beautiful place surrounded by plants and artifacts.
Ibu Asmoro and me
Ibu Caecilia was at my opening, and I was so happy to see her there after knowing each other through instagram, zooms and DM’s. Caecilia invited me to her home to see some of her collection. I was surprised by so many wonderful pieces, and of each Caecilia easily recalls why she got it, and the interesting story they tell. She not only collected old pieces, but also newer, making her a true batik warrior. It is so lovely to get to spend time with people who love batik like I do and want to share time with me! Such a gift and cannot wait for your Batik book Caecilia!
Opening of the I Love Wastra Bazaar
Photo by me
White lace kebaya from Wayang Sakti
On Thursday 26 Oktober started my morning at the Bazaar Indonesia for the opening of the ‘I love Wastra Bazaar’ {Who can hook me up with a t-shirt of the event, it is so good!}. Several familiar textile promotors were there, so nice to not only great Ibu Liesna of Galerie Liesna, but also run into Stefanie of Wayang Sakti and Pak Agus of Batik Tiga Puteri. To my surprise he already visited my exhibition and told me he loved it, yes!
At Stefanie’s booth I tried several white kebaya’s. For the Batik Carnival in Pekalongan the dresscode was white top, batik below. Not having anything white, I saw it as a good reason to get one, also with me & Dido’s project in mind (Read more here about The meaning of the white kebaya & our project). I went for a long, lace version. Not European, not very Chinese either, somewhere in between. Still feel weird wearing it though...
Liesna had her new collection Kebaya Jeng Sri at her booth. Love her designed fabrics made from paintings she did.
This week we start our Erasmus Huis | Esmod Jakarta collab. Her students picked out Batiks during the pasar batik and will style looks with this. These looks will be finalized and modelled on 8 November in the exhibition space at Erasmus Huis.
Liesna's latest collection Kebaya Jeng Sri
Photo by me
Kebaya from Kebaya Jeng Sri collection
Photo by me
In the afternoon I headed to the screening of two films by Wulan Putri of Perempuan Berkabar at Gudskul. We got introduced to each other years ago by Krisna Murti. For us both an inspiration in our work, who is truly missed in the creative world. I contacted Wulan if she had any tips who could document my openingsweekend, to my big surprise, she wanted to do it!
I am saving the footage of this for a later moment!
Wulan was screening on the 26th two short documentaries, Mama Lihat Awan Jatuh and Salmiyah at the Gudskul
Screening of Salmiyah at Gudskul
Photo by me
Salmiyah (2020) explores pieces of memory, perceptions of historical actors, historical enthusiasts and audiences. The past, always leave questions, it can never return in its full scenes. People contend to rebuild it. Salmiyah is an effort to depict the complexity of history which is always full of bias and distance.
Such great projects and stunning videos, we need to bring these to the Netherland! I was happy got to see them on a big screen and chatting a little bit more with Wulan about our work, about Krisna Murti, who we miss, the crazy world we live in and our activists souls that cannot always say what we want. It is great we finally got to meet in person and hope we can work on more in the near future!
Thank you Jakarta, I am back again and hope it will be again such great days, maybe a little bit more relax, but probably not
Fashionshow 'Pada suatu hari' by BINhouse at JFW
Photo by me
No comments:
Post a Comment