Batiks & paintings by Emily Kam Kngwarray
at Tate Modern
My 'Order an Object' laying ready at the V&A East Storehouse
A year ago I read that the overview exhibition of Emily Kam Kngwarray that was shown at NGA would come to the Tate in London. I first was introduced to Kngwarray work by Maria Wronska-Friend. During her book launch of ‘Javanese batik to the world’ she shared about Utopia Batik, the group Emily was part of. In this book there is a nice chapter on this women artist group.
I later saw works of Emily and other Batik makers from Australia in London and in Singapore. I screened a short video ‘Ingkerr Anyent-Antey’ of the group in 2018 during the first Wastra Weekend. The video shows the women batikken and singing. Although the technique was introduced from Java, they completely made their own expression with it. Truly unique, yet universal with the Aboriginal batikmakers community.
Somehow I only had a chance to go in the very last week of this exhibition, on Tuesday 6 January, and due to extreme weather in the Netherlands almost didn’t make it. We were so stuck that we at one point couldn’t get home anymore, but could get a train out of the country…
I am so so happy I still got to see this exhibition at Tate Modern in London.
Artist Emily Kam Kngwarray making a painting
Close-up of painting by Emily Kam Kngwarray
Detail of early batik by Emily Kam Kngwarray
c. 1977
Detail of batiks by Emily Kam Kngwarray
Made between 1980-1988
'Women's Dreaming - Awely'
Painting by Emily Kam Kngwarray
1990
Overview of exhibition on the work by Emily Kam Kngwarray
at Tate Modern
Detail of 'Song of the Emu'
Painting by Emily Kam Kngwarray
1991
Batiks & paintings by Emily Kam Kngwarray
at Tate Modern
Seeing both her batik and painting together gave a wonderful insight on the patterns and their symbolic meaning she used through out her works. The foot prints of the Emu, the lizards, the plant Kam as her name and other edible plants are layered both in wax and paint. The mind maps are filled with movement, showing how Emily not just draw, but her tools danced on the surface.
The display of the batiks, in the center, with her paintings around it, was stunning. It is great to see that her batik works are shown with the same care, on the same stage as her paintings. Emily switch to painting because it was taken more serious in the Artworld and it was easier for her to make than Batik. I am glad to see now that they are seen or shown as equal.
View from the textile table at the V&A East Storehouse
On Wednesday 7 January visited the new V&A East Storehouse. It is a depot with an open structure that is more accessible for anyone to take a closer look at the collection.
From the textile collection I ordered 5 Batik. It is a very easy process to do on the website of the V&A. In the collection database you can add the objects you want to see to an order list and put in a request for an appointment. Do it on time, a month or more in advance to be sure you can see them, it is very popular!
I made a pretty random selection of Batiks, that are connected to my research and projects somehow.
Batik Inventory No: T.112-1975 by Scottish maker Winifred Kennedy Scott
Collection V&A
First batik, Inventory No: T.112-1975, we saw is by Scottish maker Winifred Kennedy Scott from around 1925. Not the Batik I originally requested of her, but lovely regardless. The batik is made on silk, which is falling apart a bit. It has tassels all around, which was common around shawls. The Art Nouveau like design is made in bright colours. Miss Winifred Kennedy Scott was a student of Ann Macbeth at the Glasgow School of Art, 1924-1926.
Another student of that school was Jessie Marion King (1875 – 1949) was described in 1927 in the Aberdeen Press and Journal as "the pioneer of batik in Great Britain". She got known for her illustrated children's books including one on Batik.
Second, Inventory No: 628-1891, with a black&white photo in the database, had a lovely greenish blue, next to red and blue. A lot of craquelé and pretty simple in isen-isen, but with two completely different kepala/borders with tumpals on each side. Nowadays makers who still do these tumpals on each side might do it in different colours, usually black on one side, red on the other, but the motif is the same. On this batik all the motifs were different, even the little stars and red in had rows of tiny birds.
Batik Inventory No: 628-1891 in the online database
Collection V&A
Kepala in red with tumpals on Batik Inventory No: 628-1891
Collection V&A
Kepala in black with tumpals on Batik Inventory No: 628-1891
Collection V&A
Badan of Batik Inventory No: 628-1891
Collection V&A
Next one, inventory No: IS.148-1984, raise many questions. Is it a commercial for their lasted line of handkerchief, or is it a special giftwrap with a smart announcement on new upcoming items? The batik only dyed in red, was drawn with wax on the wrong side. I know this, because I recently did the same with a work. Thinking either side is fine to apply the wax, turns out not to be correct. Thinking I blocked both sides well, I still got a kind of stained side, on the side I considered the front… To see this in this work, brought me relieve, and at the same time I felt the maker(s) frustration. The neatest side shows the text in reverse. Still this flawed piece made it into a remarkable museum collection, leaving is to wonder how was this batik used?
Batik inventory No: IS.148-1984
Collection V&A
Batik inventory No: IS.148-1984
Collection V&A
Batik inventory No: IS.148-1984
Collection V&A
Looked at another Kain Panjang, Inventory No: 626-1891 with colours similar to the first one, but made differently. Not with a canting, but with a stamp. However the lines are very fine, difficult to imagine it is done by cap, or perhaps it can be blockprinted? Interesting mistakes in the pattern reveal it is a wax resist, but cannot figure out yet how it was made. Something to dive in further. Perhaps ask a capmaker to make a cap to create such fine lines, not in the resist, but where the colour comes into the fabric. To see if the motif in red is possible with cap.
Koen looking at Batik Inventory No: 626-1891
at the V&A East Storehouse
Detail of Batik Inventory No: 626-1891
Collection V&A
Last one is a Batik Besurek, Inventory No: S.148-1983. A true classic with the most lovely tiny mended parts. Clearly mended by who ever owned it before it was sold. This batik also has a label. A label I know very well. With rounded letters some info is noted on a white sticker. In the ‘70 and ‘80’s this person collected batiks all over Indonesia, resold them to collectors abroad, who mostly resold it again, also to museums. The short info is so painful, no mention on who owned it, what region the piece was found in, or any other info on how to batik was part of the community it cane from. The people selling were happy someone was willing to pay money for their heirlooms. That they later were resold and resold, adding many zero’s to the original price, they never knew. That the batik, maybe houses by them for generations, ended up anonymous and unknown in a depot far away. If I see these labels, my heart breaks a little. The person collecting must have known so much, heard so many stories, but the collectors just wanted to own the batik, not know the batik ~ not really. Pieces together their story will always be incomplete, but knowing how it got lost, helps hopefully to do better.
Batik Besurek Inventory No: S.148-1983
Collection V&A
Lovely to experience the ‘Order an Object’ at the new V&A East Storehouse and look at these great pieces, can highly recommend it!
Dutch dress made with Chintz on display at the V&A in London
On Thursday 8 January before heading home, we visited the V&A to look at the Asian collection.
The display hasn’t changed much from howI remembered, but how I see it know has for sure. Still amazed that Dutch traditional wear influenced by our colonial past, is here on display, for years, and we are still dancing around it, it often seems like. Also interesting that the British put us center, “Look over there!”, while their colonial rule of India made their country wealth.
Anyway, what I wanted to look at were the many chintz they have on display. Big bedcovers/wall hangings, mostly from mid to late 18th century. The chintz from this time have a wax resist in them. Not just to keep the colours clear from the blue during the last step, but as isen-isen, small decorative lines, stripes, flowers, even as drops of wax that you now see in wax prints.
According to the text sign, “the fine white motifs against a coloured ground were drawn in wax-resisted lines with a simple bamboo pen.” These bamboo pens were depicted by Rouffaer in 1914 in his book ‘The Batik-Art of the Dutch East Indies’. His theory is that the technique of Javanese Batik originates from India.
The lines in the chintz may be made in wax, but the isen-isen that fill batiks have a different character. They are similar, but not the same. The problem is, we do not have comparisons from the same era.
In Indonesia batik is believed to be as old as chintz, yet we have no batik pre-dating the very late 18th century. Yet the chintz made for the Indonesian market, are in their design set-up the same as batiks in the early 19th century. Scholars in India think batik influenced chintz, but chintz very well could have influenced batik. It is hard to say. It is a chicken or the egg, but in this case where did the tumpal (triangle on the edges) come from? On chintz for the Indian and European market they are not included. Perhaps a mystery to be solved one day.
Detail of Chintz showing the fine wax resisted lines
at V&A
Detail of Chintz showing the fine wax resisted lines
at V&A
Detail of Chintz showing the fine wax resisted lines
at V&A
Detail of Chintz showing the fine wax resisted lines
at V&A
Detail of Chintz showing the fine wax resisted lines
at V&A