A glorious homage to Indonesian batik

Batik: Spirit of Indonesia; Published jointly by Yayasan Batik Indonesia (The Indonesian Batik Foundation), PT Buku Antar Bangsa and Singapore-based Editions Didier Millet; 232 pp.

JAKARTA (JP): Batik is more than just a piece of dyed-textile. The meticulously designed fabric embodies a wealth social and cultural values, at least for Javanese people who have been wearing traditional batik garments for hundreds of years.

For most Indonesians, batik has become one of their cultural brands. Its beautiful designs and elaborate dying techniques have compelled a large number of scholars to comprehensively reveal the history behind these highly artistic fabrics.

Unfortunately, most of the studies and writings on batik have been undertaken by foreign scholars, textile artists and art historians. Only several Indonesians, including batik master Iwan Tirta and textile expert Nian Djoemena, have dedicated their lives to exploring the history of batik and compile a number of precious books.

Based on this gloomy fact, the non-profit organization Yayasan Batik Indonesia (the Indonesian Batik Foundation) initiated the publication of a book entitled Batik: Spirit of Indonesia which focuses on batik from an Indonesian perspective.

The 232-page book presents analytical essays on batik from different angles. These include writings by archaeologist Rony Siswandi; the beau of famous batik maker Josephine Komara, or Obin, Nian Djoemena; Judi Achjadi; Iwan Tirta; Asmoro Damais; art critic Suwarno Wisetrotomo; and highly respected batik guru KRHT Hardjonagoro, or Go Tik Swan.

At first glance, it will seem a formidable task to embark on digesting this thick hardback, but readers will soon discover that its essays occupy only 46 of the 232 pages, while the remaining pages are filled with a wonderful photographic display.

The book is divided into two parts. The first section describes the story of batik and the fabric's history.

Archaeologist Rony Siswandi writes in The Roots of Tradition about the early history of batik in Indonesia.

There are five broad categories of batik traditions in Indonesia, divided and categorized according to technique, each manifesting a number of factors that may have been active in its evolution.

Batik evolved from a simple cloth to a more sophisticated fabric in line with the development of waxing, dying techniques as well as designs and motifs, Rony maintains.

Nian Djoemena explores the regional variations of batik. Batik has been produced in several regions in Indonesia. Each variation has its own characteristics deriving from a relationship with religious beliefs, traditional and social systems, geographical location, foreign interaction and local history.

Nian said the batik designs were not solely created for aesthetic reasons, but also as a means of education, a guide on how to conduct oneself throughout the cycle of life. Despite this varied background, however, batik falls into two broad categories, Surakarta and Yogyakarta, referred to as the Principalities, and other coastal areas of Java.

Meanwhile, Judi Achjadi explores the condition of the batik industry entering the 20th century. The involvement of non- Javanese (Europeans, Eurasians, Chinese and Arabs) in the process, as both producers and users, expanded the scope of batik's design and color vocabulary.

The second part of the book deals with the use of batik in the present time -- in the home, fashion and fine arts.

Asmoro Damais discloses the role of Indonesia's first president Sukarno in promoting batik as a national symbol.

She also mentions the roles of the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) in supporting local craftspeople. Under the program for crafts in Third World countries, established in the early l960s, UNDP/ILO provided technical assistance to modernize Indonesian crafts, including batik.

The program encouraged local batik makers to improve quality and to experiment with new techniques and designs in an attempt to develop batik as a furnishing fabric, for home interiors and other decorative uses.

Apart from the use of batik as a decorative item, it is also interesting to learn how batik was transformed into a fine art.

Art critic Suwarno Wisetrotomo from the Yogyakarta Arts Institute (ISI) recorded that there was heated debate among local artists on the emergence of batik painters.

The controversy was aroused with the appearance of Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru, which grouped young artists from ISI in Yogyakarta with those of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), who launched a new theory to explode the notion of conventional arts by expanding on the traditional disciplines acknowledged as a legitimate art form.

Fine arts, the artists argued, was much more than painting, carving, sculpture, graphics etc. Other fields, including the design and crafting of batik, had to be embraced in the wider framework of art.

In the final chapter batik master Iwan Tirta explores the history of batik in local and international fashion.

It was not until the l950s that batik garments in Indonesia developed beyond the traditional rectangular-shaped cloth. As a batik artist and couturier, Iwan eloquently reveals the journey of batik from traditional cloth to western-style designs and even couture outfits.

The book's text is definitely an interesting read, despite the authors scholarly, and sometimes boring, styles of writing. Kudos must be given to the book's photographers who provide beautiful pictures illustrating the various batik motifs. Private photos and documentation borrowed from ardent batik collectors and the Javanese royal families have added more value to this book. The most disturbing pictures are those portraying Jakarta's elites wearing batik dresses in tacky poses.

The book's jacket is also elegantly designed. A famous batik designer once informed the foundation's chairman that the wife of a Golkar figure prominent at the time had asked him to create a book cover design in yellow, the party's signature color. Thanks to the reform movement, the book in question now appears with a very artistic jacket, exposing batik tool-making with a classic soga-brown batik design in the background instead of yellow.

One thing that is dismaying about this publication is that the book is only published in English. If the foundation really is eager to promote and preserve batik as an integral part of Indonesia's cultural heritage, the book should be published bilingually so that Indonesians, particularly the younger generations, are able to appreciate batik even more.

-- Rita A.Widiadana