Annemarie works to enhance batik

Annemarie works to enhance batik

By Linda Owens

JAKARTA (JP): Step inside Cemara 6 Gallery in Central Jakarta,
and you'll swear you've walked right into a palace reception
hall.

The glow of bright, mosaic-like colors stud nearly every
square inch of wall space while the German-born Annemarie
Kipar's enthusiasm leaps out in sparks and flashes, exactly like
her jeweled batik tapestries currently on display here.

The best term to describe Annemarie is "renaissance woman".
Her academic background is impressive in itself: French
Literature at Lausanne, English Literature at Cambridge and Art
History at Berkeley. Before sojourning to Bali three years ago,
she designed, built and operated the famous "Annemarie's", an
elegant San Francisco restaurant featuring French cuisine.

Planning to write a book, she settled in Ubud, and soon
discovered Indonesia's rich batik tradition. She began to collect
antique pieces from Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Pekalongan, Cirebon,
Lasem, and Indramayu, among others. The fact that the batik
designers not only created an object to delight the eye through
harmonious composition of shapes and colors, but also endowed
them with motifs conveying messages closely related to their own
philosophy of life fascinated her.

Some of these motifs were traditionally associated with
specific occasions, such as weddings, childbirth, or funerals,
and others for specific purposes, like warding off danger or
restoring a sick person to health. Still others, however, simply
expressed the sheer beauty of flowers, birds and butterflies.

Annemarie began to cut and piece together sections of antique
and new batik and composed them into wall tapestries, standing
screens, bed covers and kimonos. What sets her art apart is the
way she enhances its beauty with beads, sequins and stones from
her vast collection. Some shapes she merely outlines or accents,
while others are filled with densely packed rows of sewn-on
baubles, giving them dimension and creating new patterns.
Occasionally she adds highlights of gold or silver paint.

Though some of her pieces are quite heavily encrusted, she
says it is never her intention to overpower the batik, but to
enhance its beauty. Some of the pieces are so old, she says, it's
hard to bring herself to cut them sometimes and therefore does it
with reverence. Some pieces she keeps whole, obviously sensing
the symbolic significance they contain. The symbolism is what she
wishes to bring to life with her art.

Annemarie claims her ability at needlework is something she
learned at her mother's knee. Recalling her childhood in World
War II Dresden, she reminisced about how her mother once took a
discarded jacket, embellished it with beadwork and lined it with
run silk stockings, transforming it from a scratchy postman's
uniform into a fantastic coat of many colors for her.

Gustav Klimt

The centuries-old artform has taken on a unique and personal
interpretation in Annemarie's hands. Her work recalls the
shimmering, iridescent colors and intricate detail of the
symbolist painter Gustav Klimt, from whom she says she gained
inspiration.

Indonesia in general, and batik in particular, have always
welcomed new influences and interpretations. Throughout history,
Indonesia's strategic location has occasioned a lively exchange
in a variety of goods and ideas from abroad. Foreign art and
culture, from Chinese-Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and Islam have
influenced and fused with the indigenous cultures, resulting in
new works of art with their own unique beauty.

Annemarie admits she has learned a great deal about Asian
sense of color, form, and detail from the many expert beaders who
have helped her works take shape. She rarely gives them specific
directions as to how a particular piece of batik should be
worked. The result, she says, though different from color choices
she might come up with, are often surprisingly pleasant. Over
time, she has come to implicitly trust their work and owes a
measure of her success to them. The tapestries she beads herself
are quite different from those of her Indonesian counterparts.
Both are sumptuous, yet Annemarie's palette is more subdued and
elegant than the sometimes wild, yet strangely congruous color
mixtures that emerge in her collaborative works.

Although the writing project that originally brought Annemarie
to Indonesia is nearing completion, she just may have begun on a
new endeavor that will absorb her far into the future.

Her next idea is beaded batik sarongs. If the minor problem of
beads popping off when you sit down can be solved, she says they
just might catch on. One gets the definite sense that with her
creativity and determination, she'll find a way.

Annemarie Kipar's jeweled batik tapestries will be on display
at Cemara 6 Gallery Cafe through Sept. 10. The public is invited
to attend an open house, and meet the artist herself, at the
gallery on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 7:00 p.m.