PindaKAAS Light in Tilburg

Wallpaper installation The journey of Batik

Sunday the 5 of June PindaKAAS Light took place in Tilburg. I showed a work in progress & "The journey of Batik" and made a Batik Sidewalk Chalk Workshop.


With different assignments like "What kind of animal would you like to draw in a Batik?" or "Draw a fantasy Batik bird", a Batik was created on the sidewalk.



The work in progress I showed is a presentation about the Pagi-Sore Batik (day-night Batik) I'm making. The plan in short is to make a painting of a day-night Batik. I make a design of it and send it to Indonesia. Where (hopefully) the Batik makers in Jeruk will make a Batik of it. Eventually they will be exhibit together.
Because the work is still in progress, I can't show details of the painting yet.

From left to right: The Women in Jeruk (page from my photobook "The journey to Batik"), examples of Pagi-Sore Batiks, photo of the workplace in Jeruk, Batik I made in Yogyakarta, photo Jeruk, sketch for my Pagi-Sore Batik.


Because I was busy with the workshop I didn't had time to see much of the program of PindaKAAS, but I did see the theater show "Deze & Genen" by Elsbeth Vernout . A real must see show. Great songs & a strong story!

Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam

Ancestor figure from New Guinea

Last week I visited the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam. It was a long time ago that I was there. It is located in a beautiful building. The Tropenmuseum has a lot of Batiks in their collection, unfortunately not on display in the museum. But still there was enough inspiration to be found! I especially like the bird figures from New Guinea & Papua (see the photo's below) and I think the Tree of life will have a place in my work soon.

Enjoy the photo's and when you are in Amsterdam do visit the Tropenmuseum!

New Guinea

Dance skirt made of Bark ("boomschors"), Sentani-lake, Papua

Hornbill figure ("Neushoornvogelfiguur") and other mythical bird figures

Nut cracker from Madura, Indonesia

Malaysia, 19e century

Love this one! 

Bird figure made by the Asmat (people) from Papua.

 It's based on a cockatoo

This Hornbill figure was used by the Abelam (people) 

to gard the men house

Papua/New Guinea

Indonesia

Prayer shawl, Batik made in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 2007

Tree of Life

Tree of life ("levensboom") 

This specific one is used in Wayang to mark the beginning, end or the break of a Wayang play. The Tree of life is called Dewadaru. It stands for gift of the gods. The tree grows on the Karimunjawa Islands north of Java. The inhabitants believe the wood of the tree has heeling power and is used as an charm for protection.

Tree of life from Mexico

In Mexico this Tree of life is used on the Day of the dead ("Día de los Muertos")

The candles stand for the spirits of lost family and friends.

India - Netherlands

In 1675 the Dutch East India Compony (VOC) began importing brightly coloured chintz ("sitsen") from India. In the Netherlands they started to make imitations. This jacket ("jakje") is from the around 1817 closed cotton print factory Overtooms welvaren in Amsterdam.

Wooden printblocks from Iran

Printblock ("drukblok")

Made of wood from Iran, decorated with palmette ("palmetten-versiering"; gestilleerd palmblad of kleine palm) for applying ornaments on cotton. The printblocks look a lot like the caps from Indonesia. I think they apply the paint directly to the wood and then stamp on the fabric. With the cap it's the wax that is applied to the fabric.

African Batik

Angisa's, textile with a message

The origin of this folded head cloth lies in West Africa. The way the head cloth is folded gives expression the the feeling of the wearer. Sometimes it's a silent for of protest or a way to show happiness.





More info on www.tropenmuseum.nl

Indische Huiskamer

het Indische Huiskamer Koor

Last Wednesday I visited the 'Indische huiskamer' in Eindhoven. The 'Indische Huiskamer' is organized by Joyce Radesey of het Indische Atelier. This cozy Indonesian afternoon is held monthly in the community center 'De Boemerang'.
I was there to get some ideas for my lecture I'm going to give in September about The journey to Batik. I hope I can make it as much fun as this afternoon!

Jozef & Det Wagenaars told about Kampoeng Baron. A restaurant with guest-rooms on Java in which Art is important. Det's brother Boudewijn Brands started a project to give local, starting artists a meeting place. He collected art and got the idea to start a gallery or residence at the coast of java together with Zulkarnain. To finance the project they first started a restaurant. Before Boudewijn dream was realized he died shortly after the opening of the restaurant, due to an earthquake.
His sister Det and brother in law Jozef continued his project. Next to the restaurant, with many artworks from Boudewijn's collection, they build two guest-rooms. Over time a gallery and familyhouses for holidays will be added.

More about Kampoeng Baron on www.kampoeng-baron.com

The 'Indische Huiskamer' afternoon ended with a home made movie about a journey through Indonesia. A lot of footage where made on the Sunda islands. A great amateur video full green oases, rituals, big animals and beautiful people.

Between the presentations the 'Indische Huiskamer Koor' sang some tradition Indonesian songs. Everyone was handed a folder of song lyrics to sing along (see photo).

The Gods Walk on Rice in Selat, Bali

When I find the time & peace to read, I take my rice-bible and flip through it and read bits & pieces in it. I'm looking for inspiration, but even more conformation. My ricecarpets get a different response in the Netherlands then they did in Indonesia. Here they always refer to the fact that it is food and that it is a pity to use it like that, although they like to look at it (and touch it!) . For me I see it as a material, a beautiful, colourful material and the fact that it is also food comes on the second place. It makes it a stronger piece of Art because it rice and therefore temporary, but it still makes itl difficult sometimes to fight the contradiction.

For me it feels really logical to use rice and at first I used it as a work that had to be eaten by birds. But with the Dance in a ricecarpet, the rice is no longer food. It became so much more, it added richness, made layers, gives it depth, sound, movement...
When I found the book The Art of Rice I was overwhelmed. The book is devoted to rice, but not as food, but as part of rituals, as Folk-Art and other parts of culture. It is shown as a subject, but mostly as a material; the rice grain, rice dough, grain, the plant.




On Friday 15th of April I'm invited to show the Dance in a ricecarpet one more time. When I came across the images, posted here, I knew I was on the right track. I know it is not the same, but I know we will create a rare moment in time, the audience will experience something new and special.

The images in this posts from the book The Art of Rice are taking during the rice festival in Selat, Bali. During a procession, The Gods Walk on Rice, offers are carried across a pathway made with (un)cooked, yellow or white rice. It stretched up to 350 meters. The book published in 2003 mentions the last procession was held in 1998. The 'festival' is held when year ends with an 0 according to the Saka. In 1998 the Saka year was 1920.
I really would like to see this in real life, but I asked many people, but no one hear of it...If you know more about this rice festival and when & where The Gods Walk of Rice takes place, let me know!




*All photos are from the book "The Art of Rice", my so called rice-bible
**In 2009 I found another inspiring image involving rice, read more in RiceFish from Borneo 

Working with rice

Rice installation, Yogyakarta, Indonesia by Edith Bons

Many artists use paint or clay, for me the material of choice is rice. And I'm not the only one. Three articles I found about work inspired by or made of rice (click on the images to enlarge). Enjoy!

Article by Frans Leidelmeijer. Each month he reviews an artwork that was influenced by European and Indonesian culture in the Moesson

Edith Bons is an interesting Dutch artist who was born in Indonesia. Her work is an combination of installations, paintings and collages. The articles are in Dutch, but in short there about what inspires her to make her work.
Her roots are in Indonesia, and it has a great influence on her work, but on the other hand her western upbringing has a great influence as well. She uses Batik motifs (Polengmotif, symbol of cosmic unity, used in Bali for holy cloths) and rice (she says: "rice is nutrient (both physically as spiritual(, transparent, has structure, and can transform into many shapes...It has a connection with the Javanese goddess for fertility: Dewi Sri..)

Article from the BKK Krant, December 2010

In the folder from the past exhibition in the Grafisch Atelier Den Bosch rice is used in a graphic technique called "blinddrukken". The rice is used as a stamp by Poula Versantvoort. Unfortunally her website is offline, so I only have this information.

Work was part of group exhibition "Klassieke uitdrukkingswijzen in eigentijdse uitingen" at het Grafisch Atelier

Big trend

Spring collection L.A.M.B.

Reading a new post of Tavi I noticed that there was an African Batik dress hanging behind her & Gwen Stefani. Googling I read that the new L.A.M.B. Spring collection (Gwen's own fashion label) is full of African Batiks.

Gwen Stefani in her own L.A.M.B. African Batik dress

At my new job I read the new fashion magazines like Grazia every week. One of the december issues covered a story of the dress makers for the Vlisco ads. The Vlisco campaigns show beautifully made dresses of the fabrics they sell.

Latest campaign by Vlisco

After seeing the campaign photo's I told Koen that I would only wear Batik from now on on, or at least pattern covered fabrics. Cause I'm not handy with fabric and I don't own a lot of Batiks yet. Any way, I would like visit the store in Helmond soon (and wear only Batik later in life)


Vlisco, P.F. van Vlissingen & Co's Katoenfabrieken, started their fabric legacy around 1852 with exporting hand printed Batiks to the Dutch East Indies, now know as Indonesia. An uncle of Pieter F. van Vlissingen was already trading in Indonesia and told him about the possibilities.

Vlisco "Real Dutch Java Prints", collection Textiel Museum (Tilburg)

Vlisco made very good imitations of well known Batiks, originally made by hand, and these were exported to Indonesia. From 1876 they started with the African Batiks which are now their main business.

From Johanna

I'm now, among other things, preparing the PR for the exhibition of artist Johanna Schweizer for "Spiegelhol" at IDFX. At the last meeting she showed me her Batiks. A unique Vlisco and real ones from Bali. She even gave me one.

But that's not all the African Batiks that come upon my path these last months. My next door neighbor always wears these beautiful African Batiks when she goes to church. Every time I see her, the Batiks remind me of the work of artist Emmy Dijkstra.


In Emmy's early works, mostly black and white graphic prints, the people are wearing traditional (African) clothing.


After her residence in France she got inspired by Tapa (Bark Cloth printed, painted or stamp, with patterns) and made a series of paper dresses. I told her that we should do a residence together. After thinking and talking about it in 2010, we started 2011 with a virtual residence at Virtual Art Winter Residence together. The work we make we hope to show and develop together at a real location later this year.

So the (African) Batik trend continues, in big fashion & small art!

Another thing that really has to happen this year is getting a closer look at the Batik collection of the Textiel Museum in Tilburg. They own a lot of Batiks, from around the world and off course the Vlisco imitations.


Last but not least, my photo book "De reis naar Batik, een vergeten industrie" ("The journey to Batik, an forgotten Industry") is published in the january edition of the Dutch Indonesian magazine Moesson.
You can order the book in Dutch or English by sending me an email at sabine@sabinebolk.nl.

It's going to be a Batik-full year!

Small trend in Breda

Spotting two young guys wearing Batik backpacks in Breda a couple a weeks ago. I saw these backpack in Indonesia, and one of guys told me he bought it there. It's good to see them wear these patterns from their roots full of pride here! I consider it a small trend, because I spotted a lot of Batik fabric bags since I'm back from Indonesia. The typical "made for tourist" bags stand out the most, and I was so happy to spot the backpacks here. It's very trendy to wear an backpack with an striking patterns. It's telling "this is me!". I have my own patterned backpack and it took a while finding the right one.
Wearing Batik comes back in a new form and I hope the trend will be followed by more!