Artist Emmy Dijkstra was in France for a residence when I was in Indonesia. She stayed there for a month. When I returned from Indonesia and visited her website www.emmydijkstra.nl to see how her residence was, I saw all these new, beautiful works. What struck me the most were the similarities between our journey and our work. During her residence she started making paper dresses. She printed colorful patterns based on her surroundings on paper.
This dress she based on a visit. On the ceiling corn was hanging to dry. This image inspired her to make this dress. This change in Emmy's work is really surprising, especially the bold use of colors.
In France Emmy visited an exhibition about Tapa (cloth). "Tapa cloth (or simply tapa) is a bark cloth made in the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Tapa can be painted, decorated by rubbing, stamping, stencilling, smoking (Fiji - "masi Kuvui") or dyeing. The patterns of Tongan, Samoan, and Fijian tapa usually form a grid of squares, each of which contains geometrical patterns with repeated motifs such as fish and plants, for example four stylised leaves forming a diagonal cross. Traditional dyes are usually black and rust-brown, although other colours are also known."
- From Wikipedia
Tapa is also made on Java (and other places in Indonesia). When I flipped through the pages of the book 'Indonesia, De Ontdekking Van Het Verleden', a gift from Susan, I noticed that I put little cards in it, examples I used for making my silk-screenprint for the Grafiekmap De Brabantse Ring. You never guess, the cards where on the pages about Bark Cloth.
