'Fussy' Aussie fires up Padang passions

'Fussy' Aussie fires up Padang passions

Duncan Graham, Contributor, Surabaya

About 15 years ago, Western Australian textile artist Megan
Kirwan-Ward thought it was time she refined, updated and
formalized her skills.

She already had a degree in English literature, but wanted
qualifications in art.

By chance, Elsa King, her lecturer at Perth's Edith Cowan
University, was developing professional relationships with batik
artists in Yogyakarta. She invited Kirwan-Ward to visit Indonesia
and explore the creativity of local women.

It didn't take her long to appreciate the great depth and
range of batik designs that vary from district to district. She
was particularly surprised to find traditional Indonesian
handicrafts had resisted the invasion of artificial fibers and
mass production techniques, despite enormous pressures to cut
costs and speed manufacture.

"One day, we set off in a jeep to visit a remote village in
East Java," said Kirwan-Ward in her Fremantle gallery. "We were
supposed to get there in a couple of hours but we didn't arrive
till after nightfall.

"The village head greeted us with great hospitality. Then we
walked down through the forest to a river and another house where
a most beautiful woman was working on batik. There was no
electricity. She was using candles that illuminated her every
movement.

"These were movements of grace and beauty, handed down through
generations of artists performing these traditional actions.
Although I've forgotten the village name I have an enduring
memory of the event. It was a stunning and extraordinary scene I
will never forget."

The Australian was stitched into Indonesia, but it took
another 10 years before she could return and expand her
experiences.

For the next decade she researched Indonesian textile art and
become fascinated by the Dutch influence on traditional
embroidery techniques in West Sumatra.

Her studies led to an Asialink fellowship organized out of
Melbourne University and supported by the philanthropic Myer
Foundation. She then headed for Padang with a sewing machine and
some vague plans about designing clothes and furnishings.

Friends with a surf shop offered Kirwan-Ward a room where she
set up her machine and started wandering the markets for
materials and dyes.

Passion Prints is born

Now Padang, Sumatra's major west coast seaport, is not Kuta --
so a middle-aged bule (Westerner) asking about traditional arts
attracted interest. Soon local women were swapping their
knowledge and skills. A collective was formed.

The planned three-month stay wasn't enough for Kirwan-Ward to
absorb everything and develop her ideas. She renewed her visa and
with her new friends and their families built a workshop on the
outskirts of Padang.

The collective now produces a wide range of textiles that are
taken to Australia, exhibited and sold under the name Passion
Prints. They include quilts, cushions, dolls, scarves, bed linen
and clothing. The materials used are silk, silk organza, cotton,
brocade and velvet. All have been hand-dyed and stitched.

Many look more like three-dimensional sculptures than works of
fabric. These are not batik. Most are practical and decorative.
Apart from blue, most colors are earthy and reminiscent of the
Australian landscape.

"Islamic art prohibits the depiction of living things, so many
themes are abstract," she said. "I've been attracted to many of
these designs but I'm also influenced by natural forms from the
land and sea, particularly the reef ecologies of Western
Australia and West Sumatra, for both front the Indian Ocean.

"My work always has an organic feel. The first works I brought
back to Australia were so well received that the collective is
now working full time.

"It's difficult to source good dyes in Indonesia so I have to
take materials to Padang.

"Not all the women were skilled at sewing so there's been a
lot of learning. It's also been empowering because some women
have now become breadwinners and their work is recognized as
having value.

"Quality control is critical. I've explained that any work
that isn't perfect won't sell in Australia. I got a reputation
for being a very fussy woman.

"This message is now so well understood that I've been
criticized by collective members for not presenting stitch work
up to their standards. These are Minangkabau women in a
matriarchal and matrilineal society. They are very smart."

Kirwan-Ward has learned Indonesian to communicate with members
of the collective. She stressed that although the project --
which has been backed by the Western Australian government -- is
successful it has been a critical learning experience for herself
and her Indonesian colleagues.

"I've been a blundering stranger in a strange land," she said
on the eve of returning to Padang to help organize more textiles
for exhibitions in Indonesia and India. She had just come from a
showing in Melbourne supported by the Australia-Indonesia
Institute.

"I recognize my influence can be positive and negative. I'm
mindful that because the cultures are so different I'm often
unaware of the impact of many things I do. I'm in someone else's
landscape so I must abide by their rules.

"This is still a niche product. But what's happening here is
real connection between ordinary people who are neighbors. These
relationships are productive and meaningful and so important.

"If it develops we can create exchange programs so more
Australian textile artists can travel to Indonesia and experience
the richness of archipelago art."

(For more details click on www.passionprints.com)