Few to participate in batik contest

Few to participate in batik contest

YOGYAKARTA: Yogyakarta is slated to host the second International Batik Festival on Sept. 4, 2002, with fewer participants than last year.

The chairman of the festival's organizing committee Ardiyanto Pranata said here on Friday that the committee had registered only about 40 displays that would be contested during the day- long festival.

"Last year we received almost 100 batik entries for the competition," said Ardiyanto, adding that the material that would pass the first selection to join the competition could be even fewer than 40 because some of them might fail to fulfill the competition's requirements.

The first step of the selection would include whether the batik is made on silk, using natural dyeing agents and uses the Yogyakarta style in their motifs. Each of the works would consist of a piece of silk batik cloth of 2.5 meters long and another piece of silk batik scarf of free size and form.

According to Ardiyanto, the difficulty of making of "ceplok" motif could be behind the reasons why fewer participants were taking part in the biennial batik competition.

"Besides, there had also been different interpretations among batik artists and makers over what exactly ceplok motif of Yogyakarta style batik should be, as there is no single sourcebook on it," he said. --JP