Iwan tirelessly safeguards Indonesian batik

By Rita A. Widiadana

JAKARTA (JP): Entering the sophisticated atelier of Indonesia's foremost batik master Iwan Tirta, on Jl. Panarukan, Central Jakarta, begins a journey to uncover the mystery and legend of batik.

For many batik lovers, Iwan is a living dictionary. Batik has been his life's blood for more than four decades.

Over the years, he has been a pioneer in creating batik designs. His knowledge of batik, traditional textiles and Indonesian art is astonishing.

He has experimented with batik designs on silk, voile, and organza. He also has developed batik fabrics for haute couture, ready-to-wear, wall hangings and even upholstery.

Iwan blends traditional and contemporary designs to create new batik forms.

His sumptuous, contemporary traditional designs have appeared on the pages of prestigious publications like Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and National Geographic. His clients include aristocracy and royalty.

Expecting Iwan to be wearing one of his finest batik shirts for our interview, he appeared in a denim shirt, short army pants and a pair of leather sandal instead.

"I've just finished drawing a batik piece," Iwan opened the conversation. Rarely appearing in Jakarta, Iwan mostly spends his days in his Manhattan apartment finishing his latest book on batik. His previous book on Batik is Batik A Play of Light and Shades.

While in Jakarta, Iwan secludes himself in his antique-filled atelier avoiding the city's parties and socialites. He finds working in batik an escape from the current social and political upheavals. "I can attend various art and cultural performances in New York, here I want to free my heart and mind from any polluted influences," Iwan said.

For the future he is planning a big project -- a grandeur fashion show involving young designers like Samuel Watimena, Chossy Latu, Sebastian Gunawan and Susan Budiardjo.

"I want to invite them to cooperate with me in the promotion of Indonesian batik," said Iwan adding that he will provide luxury batik material and let the designers explore their creativity.

Some young designers complain they are too confused to work with batik. "I was quite astonished to hear this but then I realized they were not to be blamed for their ignorance of batik," Iwan recalled.

Most Indonesian youth have inadequate knowledge and interest in their own art and cultural legacy. "It is not their fault. For me, it is we, the older generation, who have to show, to guide and to educate them about our priceless cultural heritage," maintained Iwan.

He suggested Indonesian art and culture, including batik art and its making process, be taught at local schools from elementary to university levels.

The 65-year old batik master also feels the urgent need to pass his knowledge on batik to younger artists.

"My days are numbered. If God is willing, how many more years left for me to go on working and creating batik?" Iwan asserted.

He acknowledged he is eager to teach some young designers how to master batik arts. "Some of them, including Chossy Latu, are pretty talented, yet they have neither passion nor patience to master batik art," Iwan complained.

Young designers are reluctant to go to batik centers and spend their time learning skills from batik masters.

"I remembered spending years of my youth delving into books and ancient manuscripts on the history and philosophy of each batik design and pattern and Indonesian textiles in general in local and foreign museums and libraries," Iwan reminisced.

Childhood

Nursjiwan Tirtaatmadja was born in Blora, Central Java in 1935, the youngest of four children of Mr. Moh. Husein Tirtaatmadja, a supreme court justice.

His late mother Mrs Ramah Saleh Tirtaanidjaja, an educator and art collector, nurtured his inherent artistic gift. "My parents were so strict. It was a kind of Victorian upbringing," Iwan remembered.

The parents forced their children to master Javanese dance and classical music, piano, wayang kulit, leather puppet, and the arts in general. The children had to learn English, Dutch, French and German in addition to Javanese language.

"My father came from West Java and my mother from Minang (Minangkabau ethnic of West Sumatra) but we lived in Central Java so we absorbed Javanese culture," Iwan said.

He graduated from Law Faculty at the University of Indonesia and continued his study on the Oriental and African Studies at London School of Economics and got master degree in Law from Yale University in the United States.

He returned to Indonesia to teach international law. But soon, he received the Adlai Stevenson Award in l968 and went to New York to work at the United Nations.

Upon returning home, he set his law career aside, temporarily he thought, to further his knowledge of classical Javanese art, music and dance.

Aided by a grant from the John D. Rockefeller III Fund, he undertook a research project on the sacred dances of the royal courts, he nurtured a new found interest in Javanese fabrics an interest stimulated by his mother's collection.

He soon recognized the need to document and preserve the art and craft of batik. In l966, he completed a book called Batik, Patterns and Motif that details the historical and sociological aspect of batik.

During this formative period, Iwan studied and apprenticed the technique of making batik under some of the most respected figures in Indonesian batik world. His "teachers" ranged from Javanese royal circles, batik artists, art patrons to mbok-mbok (old Javanese women) batik vendors at Beringhardjo market in Yogyakarta and Klewer market in Surakarta.

"One influential guru was Go Tik Swan or Harjonagoro, a passionate batik artist and a patron of the Javanese court," recalled Iwan.

He absorbed Harjonagoro's wisdom, philosophy, technique and vision -- precision, balance, beauty and harmony of design.

"All of these things are embodied in my current creations," he explained.

Many times, Iwan traveled to remote villages in West and Central Java where batik specialists lived.

Iwan went to those places by dokar, horse carriage, traveling rough and muddy roads for hours. "It was a hard trip but I was happy because I knew I'd meet renowned batik masters," he remembered.

Proud

Iwan is eager to see Indonesians proudly wear batik cloths, but many are reluctant and feel inferior to those clad in Western designers' apparel.

"It is indeed difficult to improve the image of batik as old- fashioned with cheap fabrics," he said. Batik has been always linked to feudalism.

In the case of Batik, Iwan said, it has been long regarded as a symbol of feudalism of the Javanese royal courtiers.

Batik was deliberately designed on two levels in Java as a "court art" (in the palaces of Java where it was an extension of a refined philosophy) and a "folk art" principally in the northern coastal areas.

"In the past, no commoners had courage to wear batik designed for the courtiers," explained Iwan.

Batik was also used as a means for political propaganda.

During the Japanese occupation, local batik design called batik hokokai was influenced by Japanese elements. The term hokokai was derived from the Japanese political concept that Javanese cooperation with Japan was essential for the greater prosperity of Asia. This kind of batik was produced to please the Japanese regime.

After Indonesia's Independence in l945, batik was also used to boost the nation-building spirit. Indonesia's first president Soekarno strongly encouraged Indonesians to wear batik.

Designers also produced a composite pattern called Konsepsi Bung Karno, a mix of a traditional parang and semen patterns dedicated to the president's political slogans.

Lembaga Kebudayaan Rakyat (Lekra), a cultural organization affiliated to the defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), also developed bold batik designs called ceplok tani, a blend of traditional sidomukti design adorned with the communist emblem 'hammer and sickle', and kerambil, to lure people's sympathy.

Soeharto's New Order regime was famous for its batik Korpri with banyan tree design, a logo of Golkar ruling party.

People mostly refused to wear batik because of this notorious image, added Iwan.

"I feel grateful to see former South African President Nelson Mandela wearing Indonesian batik," Iwan said. He is also glad that President Abdurrahman Wahid proudly wears his parang design batik shirts on almost every state occasion even during his visits to foreign countries.

"It is a good promotion for Indonesian batik," Iwan asserted.

Iwan has dressed famous figures like American President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton, European royal family members to local and foreign upscale clientele.

What concerns him most is the fate of batik in this technological age.

He believes that some of the best of Indonesian culture has been exported to museums abroad during the colonial period.

A wide range of superb and rare batik designs are now collected by foreign museums, individuals like Tassilo Adam, former conductor of Sultan of Yogyakarta and Surakarta' philharmonic orchestras in the l920s.

Currently, a fine selection of old Indonesian batik belonging to avid art collector Rudolf Smend (see page 14) is being displayed at the Rautensrauch-Joest Museum fur Volkerkunde in Cologne, Germany.

"Many Indonesian art works such as paintings, textiles, and sculptures are widely collected by foreigners," Iwan complained.

Foreign scholars and students are now studying various Indonesian art forms including gamelan, traditional music orchestra. "Gamelan is now being taught in many American and European universities. I am so afraid that our children will have to go to the United States to learn gamelan music," Iwan sadly lamented.

He said many countries are now struggling to preserve the property rights of their traditional designs and natural heritages. He has just attended an international conference on the protection of traditional and natural property rights in Geneva.

"We must do something to protect our batik and other traditional textiles," Iwan said.

Preservation of batik is now underway. "I was granted a computer set with a huge printer and a scanner valued at U$400,000 from Epson to record around 6,000 batik designs," Iwan said. Iwan, however, said Indonesia has thousands more batik designs which should be recorded. He is hopeful younger artists will continue his work.

Next November, Iwan will give part of his abundant collections to the Textile Museum in Jakarta.

"I hate to see a piece of batik in a museum," he once said "because that means it's dead, extinct." Elements of these designs can be reconstructed, revived, brought up to date. "I want them alive and in the world."