A quest in Delft

Fabric Hall in Delft

Wednesday 10 of August I visited Delft. I was looking at an earlier blogpost about Batik Buketan. In this post I metioned the influence of Delftware on Batik Belanda. (read the post here). And that in my opinion the patterns used in Batik Belanda are not based or inspired on the typical Dutch Delftware, but on the Chinese porcelain on which our Delftware is based on in the first place, or you could say "borrowed" from.

I also mention that my knowledge of Delftware is limited and that I would do some research first. So I finally went to visit Delft.
It also had to do with the Batiks by Carp I documented. She also made a Batik with the typical blue & white where Batik Belanda is know for.

Unfortunelly I didn't visit the Delfst Blue museum, because I was short of money. I did visit the Musum Nusantara (see next post), Museum Het Prinsenhof and the Botanic Garden.
And walking around in Delft I came across some nice inspired on Delftware things.

I will visit Delft again soon and then I make sure to have a more filled wallet.

Bench at Museum Het Prinsenhof

Lantern at Museum Nusantara



Tile in the bathroom of the Delft Blue Museum

Tile in the bathroom of the Delft Blue Museum

Botanic Garden

Walking through the Botanic Garden I realized that a lot of the flowers there are found in Batik. I made some close-up so I can compare them with the flowers in Batiks I photographed. But also maybe in Delfstware.
They also had a big aviary at the Botanic Garden. It was full of Gelatiks ("Rijstvogels") and other finches. The Gelatiks had a beautiful song, very different from Batik (my own ricebird). When I first saw the Gelatiks, two were jumping on a stick, like little drummers.

I captured both birds & flowers on my quest to find more about Delftware. A quest in the opposite direction (first a post about it "Batik Buketan", then a visit to the city where it is made, but finding not pottery but tropical birds and flowers), wondering where it will lead me...

Musa Basjoo, Japanese Banana, used to make cloting & thea bags

Rice bird



Fuchsia

Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam

Offering cup decorated with red coral

Wednesday me and Koen visited the Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam. It's not allowed to make pictures, but they have all these beautiful, inspiring things and we had a Iphone. They told us on every floor we weren't allowed, but I had to share these with you!

A (glued) Tibetan sand mandala

It's very nice to see one up-close, but it's also strange. It's not meant to survive. It stands for the temporary of life and if you then go and glue it to a board..t's just a typical Western thing to do. A lot of people ask me if my ricecarpet are glued or why I don't glue it. I always say that the idea behind it is that it's temporary. And if a ricecarpet was not from rice, beans and lentils, but a real carpet no one will look at it that long or intensely. And that maybe now they will look better or longer to the things they own, the things they use, the things that are common ("vanzelfsprekend") because they are just as temporary.

The Batiks were a bit hidden, but I noticed this way of displaying Batiks also in Amsterdam & Leiden. Maybe it has to do with the fragility of the fabrics. In Amsterdam the conservator told me that they never exhibit the Batiks in their collection (only with theme exhibitions) because they don't have the manpower to change the Batiks every 6 months and that then the risk of the colours fading is too high. But they also had a lot of Ikats at the Wereldmuseum and they were fully displayed.
One Batik I was really happy to see. It's called Simbut, a cloth painted with a pattern using Darih, a thick paste made of Oryza glutinosa (flour of sticky rice) instead of wax. The Darih is applied with sticks or by hand. Therefore the pattern are more rough, then the Batiks made with canting. The Batiks (in Dutch called "Kleefrijstbatiks") are made during a ritual. The abstract symbols on the cloth are mostly compasses ("windroos", shaped like a clover) and Swatika (Sunlike symbols). The cloth is used for protection and sometimes they hang a Simbut it the top of a new building for good luck and as a protection against bad spirits.

I know this Batik from the book "Bloemen van het heelal" by A. Veldhuizen-Djajasoebrata (see image above). I think it's a really inspiring Batik. The pattern is very simple, but very strong. I used the patterns in my ricecarpets. See the posts about Dance in a ricecarpet "Goddess of Rice?" and Making of Dance in a Ricecarpet in Etten-Leur .
The symbols stand for the cycle of life (the turning Sun, the directions of the wind) and the temporay of life.
I think it's the same Batik, too bad it wasn't displayed fully..

If you are in Rotterdam do visit the Wereldmuseum. The building is beautiful and they have 3 floors filled with special objects from all over the world (Africa, Asia, Oceania, America, Islamic culture)!

Made by Carp

Tuesday I visited the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam. I had an appointment with the conservator to look at some very special Batiks. The Batiks made by Maria Paulina Carp.

On the 28th of September I will give an lecture about My journey to Batik at the Indische Huiskamer in Eindhoven. To prepare for my lecture I visited the Indische Huiskamer in April, see blogpost Indische Huiskamer (in Dutch). There I met madam Rosielle-Bergsma, the granddaughter of Maria Paulina Carp. She told me about the Batiks she gave to the Tropenmuseum.

I'm so glad I got the chance to see, touch and to document the Batiks made by Carp. I will share the pictures after the lecture, because it still has to be a little surprise for madam Rosielle-Bergsma to see them again.

I got an open invitation from the conservator that if I would like to see more Batiks, I'm always welcome.
Ohh will it be more Batiks from Pekalongan or maybe from Lasem or Cirebon...?

A box with 4 special Batik Belanda's




Signature "M Carp Pekalongan" , Made by Maria Paulina Carp

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).