Busy with Batik

Entrance of the exhibition 'The journey to Batik - Day and Night' 

with first my painted 'Pagi-Sore' design from 2010

At Nieuwe Veste in Breda (NL)

Next to my design, the actual Batik, made by KUB Srikandi in 2012

Four new Pagi-Sore Batiks by Kub Srikandi, 2016 - 2018

This Sunday my blog is 10 years old! What a journey it has been, both for me and for Batik.
At first when I started my blog, it was my main way of sharing Batik; the stories, my discoveries, finds and maybe most of all my enthusiasm. The more I learned the more I wanted to know. I never thought that 10 years later I would still be busy with Batik.
And now, not just on my blog, or lately not at all on my blog at all, sorry for that, but in the real world I can share Batik. Last year and this year has been full with wonderful activities in which I could share my love for Batik in so many ways.
Last year, after a long struggle with my health {nothing new there} and reaching maybe the lowest point in my career confidence wise, a shift happend and great things came on my path. Still not all without cloudy days (mostly with clouds made out of greed & disrespect), but with very nice moments and all about Batik! The journey will not be all smooth sailing from here, but I am so happy that after almost 10 years, I finally can share my journey with so many on such different stages.

In October 2018 Cécile Verwaaijen reached out to me if I wanted to join an exhibition at De Nieuwe Veste about Batik. Different activities were being organised in Breda under the name 'Indische winter' {Indo-European Winter}. At the Stedelijk an exhibition was shown about the Indo-European influence on the Dutch popmusic.
During our first meeting I realised it was going to be a solo exhibition and that I was entirely free to fill it in however I wanted to.  I focussed in this exhibition on the phenomenon of 'Pagi-Sore Batiks'. These 'Day and Night Batiks' have a fascinating and tough history. It inspired me to make my own Batik-design in 2010 and I was a great opportunity to finally display the original painting with the Batiks made in 2012 by KUB Srikandi in Jeruk.
Next to my own design, I shared newer 'Pagi-Sore Batiks' also made by KUB Srikandi. Cécile had the great idea of hanging them in the space, so this colourful installation formed the heart of the exhibition.

Exhibition Text in Dutch written & designed by me

Batiks by Batikworkshop Gading Kencana 

and photo of Dwi Anggraeni during the 'Tari Batik' at that Batikworkshop in 2016

Batik & photos of batikmaker Nurul Maslahah made/ from 2016

Batik & photos of batikmaker Ibu Rasminah made/from 2016

Next to the Batiks, I shared the story of 'Pagi-Sore Batiks' in a hand-out, exhibition-text and a folder filled with prints from books about these cloths and the making-of my own 'Day and Night Batiks'.
My film 'The journey to Batik - Tari Batik' was shown on a screen and I featured all individual makers with photos and their own Batik.
The exhibition 'The journey to Batik - Day and Night' was opened on 16 December 2018. During the opening my film was projected in the 'Grote zaal'. I teamed up with Shuen-Li Spirit to give two Batikworkshops and I made a slide-show for the piano piece by Leopold Godowsky called the ‘Java Suite’ performed by Poitr van de Werff, teacher at Nieuwe Veste, during their New Year Concert.

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Our first Batik workshop we gave together was in our eyes a great succes🥰Shuen-li Spirit & I teamed up to share together the Art & Craft of Batik❣️In a shorter version of the actual Javanese technique, people created their own unique Batik design😍Such great & different Batiks were made❣️We had a lot of fun and our looking forward to our second {12 January at @nieuweveste} & third {23 February at @tamanindonesia} Batik Workshop together🤗#batik #batiktulis #indischewinter #nieuweveste #breda #batikworkshop #workshop #shuenlispirit #thankscecile

A post shared by Sabine Bolk (@sabinebolk) on Dec 30, 2018 at 1:46am PST

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The New Years concert at @nieuweveste was opened with a piece by Leopold Godowsky called the ‘Java Suite’🎹❣️It was performed by Poitr van de Werff, teacher at Nieuwe Veste, on piano🎹I was asked to make a matching slideshow for it, sharing my ‘journey to Batik’ & linking to my exhibition ‘The journey to Batik - Day & Night’❣️It was great to share my story together with this wonderful performance, thanks Piotr❣️ My exhibition is still on view till 20 January {Nieuwe Veste, Molenstraat, Breda, NL} #dereisnaarbatik #projectie #piotrvandewerff #piano #javasuite #leopoldgodowsky #batik #sharingbatik #nieuweveste #nieuwevestebreda #breda

A post shared by Sabine Bolk (@sabinebolk) on Jan 14, 2019 at 4:51am PST

The exhibition, and the collaboration with Cécile on making it, truly was a dream come true. It was so great to get this opportunity in my old hometown and it was so great how many people came. It was just amazing and the great Batik-flow started there hasn't yet slowed down.
It has been a bit quiet on my blog, for those who get my newsletter or follow my website, Instagram or Facebook have been kept better up to date on my activities. I will get it updated here, I promise, so much to share! Unfortunately I can't share everything yet. So what I am doing in all those archives has to be a secret still...
New news I can share however isssss that I am going to be part of this years Tong Tong Fair!!!
I am so exited to tell you that together with the lovely Guave ladies, Romée & Myrthe, we will be hosting 'The Batik Stand, A Stand For Batik'.
From 23 May till 2 June you can find us on the Grand Pasar for everything about, on and with Batik. More info soon on my website, but wanted to share it here first!
Last year, when I visited the Tong Tong Fair I was so sad not finding any Batik Tulis or Cap. And I was so disappointed that some stalls even sold 'Batik Print' as "Authentic", "Indonesian Textile"or "Traditional Batik". I posted about it on Facebook and an interesting & heated discussion started {You can read/see it in my Instagram highlighted stories 'Fake Batik''}. Some didn't get the problem or saw no harm in it, but for most the issue was real. Even Batikmakers from Java joined in! During the discussion the idea was introduced, by Jennifer of TheAiria Batik & Myrthe of Guave, to actually rent a stall & share real Batik within the Tong Tong Fair. Not against, but with the sharing, so we could share what real Batik is & why it is important to promote, support & buy it. Now one year later, we are actually doing it! Sooo great! So hope to see you there!

Thanks for visiting my exhibition  'The journey to Batik - Day and Night'

For more about the exhibition 'The journey to Batik - Day and Night':

- See 'News' on my website

- Watch the interview with Kees van Meel for his ‘Kijk in Kunst’ program for BredaNu {in Dutch}

Difficult Time

"Difficult Time", acrylic on paper, 2011

Spring is in the air, it's time to get busy in the garden and start growing sunflowers! Last year we moved from an apartment to a house with garden. I was (and still am) so happy to be back on the ground again, watching birds and putting my hands in the dirt. I started a new work in December of 2010, but it developed very slow. My subject for it literally had to grow. I had so many doubts while making this work. Every pattern I added was followed by weeks of thinking. I photographed birds in my garden for days. Made a path of left-over sunflowerseeds (from Dance in a ricecarpet) to get better images. I cultivated Sunflowers and had to wait months before they reached the right frame.
It took me a year to make my painting for a Pagi-Sore Batik design (Day-Night Batik). It was a tense year in which a lot happened.

Detail of nightside "Difficult Time"

Detail of nightside "Difficult Time"

Detail of nightside "Difficult Time"

I named the Batik 'Difficult Time'. A reference to the Pagi-Sore Batiks I based my design on.
The Japanese Empire occupied Indonesia, known then as the Dutch East Indies, during World War II from March 1942 until after the end of War in 1945. The period was one of the most critical in Indonesian history.
During this period Hokokai batiks were made. Hokokai is also called 'Difficult time'. *The batiks were commissioned by and created for the Japanese market during their occupation of Indonesia. Workers from the top batik workshops which had been taken over by the Japanese made batik to maximize the dwindled supply of materials (cotton and dyes). They drew and dyed motifs favoured by the Japanese such as butterflies, cherry blossoms and birds. These batiks had as many as seven colours and every available space on the cloth was filled with the minutest isen motifs (filling in the left over space between bigger motifs with a smaller motif). These batiks are often too rich to digest at close range, but they are an extraordinary visual spectacle when viewed fro a distance. Almost all Hokokai batik was made in Pekalongan in the Pagi-Sore format.*

**The batikworkshop of famous Batikmaker Eliza van Zuylen was also forced to work for the Japanese. Batik Hokokai was not only so extravagant and extensive in it's use of colours and motifs due to lack of good quality cotton, but probably also because van Zuylen deliberately stretched the making process. Sometimes they work more than a year on one sarong!**

Detail of nightside "Difficult Time"

Before I started making "Difficult Time" I was reading a lot about Vincent van Gogh and his love for Sunflowers and Japan. Wanting to combine his inspirations with mine I decided to design a Batik. Not knowing the history of the Pagi-Sore Batik, I chose its format because it combines day and night, beginning and ending, life and death in one work. On the dayside I wanted fields full of growing Sunflowers facing towards the sun, on the nightside birds eating Sunflowerseeds.
I wrote 3 posts on my virtual residence about preparing "Difficult Time", I posted it later on De reis naar Batik. First post was called 'Flower of the Sun' : "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!".
After that "Making fabric look like paper" and "Making paper look like fabric" : "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."

At the moment my transferred to tracing paper Pagi-Sore Batik design is with Willem Kwan, the batikexpert I met during my stay in Indonesia. He will let me know if the design can be used for an actual Batik. If so, the women I met in Jeruk (near Lasem) will make the Batik! I'll keep you posted!

Detail of dayside "Difficult Time"

Detail of dayside "Difficult Time"

Detail of dayside "Difficult Time"

* information and text from "Batik, creating an identity" by Lee Chor Lin
** information and text from article "Little Red Riding Hood in Batik, From Batik Belanda to Batik Hokokai" by Amy Wassing in 'Vertrouwd en vreemd: ontmoetingen tussen Nederland, Indië en Indonesië"'
*** Post on my website about the work in progress, Part I