Madura batik tells tale of barren land

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

While their menfolk were at sea, Madurese women made batik at home; this is the familiar story about Madurese batik.

While the seamen braved the waves of the Java sea, the women let their minds accompany their husband and lovers, imagining the waves and the red-orange sunset, producing a batik motif known as Tasik Malaya (Malayan sea).

Despite its uniqueness, Madurese batik is less popular than that of other regions, probably due to a lack of promotion.

Madurese batik cannot, however, be separated from Madura's culture and geographical nature.

This small island east of Java is a vast, barren land of white limestone rocks with a notoriously hot climate, often held to blame for the traits associated with the Madurese of coarse language and an up-front manner.

These are somehow shown in the boldness of the batik colors and the directness of the motifs, which unlike Surakarta's or Yogyakarta's batik, have no hidden meaning.

If you see a boat on a piece of Madurese batik, it is meant to be a boat. If they want to draw elephant, they will draw something that resembles an elephant instead of a symbol of an elephant like the gajah birawa (great elephant) motif from Central Java.

Madurese batik-makers are also known for their free style when drawing motifs. They rarely use templates or fixed patterns, so in the process they have developed unique detailing.

The motifs are usually a descriptive expression of fauna like birds, elephants (likely introduced when the Madurese menfolk visited Sumatra), and flower-like coffee blossoms. The motifs are also a description of things like ships or flower bouquets they knew from the Dutch, or a banal object like a piece of fermented shrimp paste.

The batik usually incorporates strong colors like vibrant reds, indigo blues, deep greens and matte black. The traditional hand-painted batik largely use vegetable dyes.

For a crash course about this fascinating batik, visit the Textile Museum on Jl. K.S. Tubun in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, where dozens of antique Madura batiks are on display.

The collection on display comprises batik belonging to the museum itself and Madurese antique and batik shops Pesona Batik Madura and Madurese Arts and Crafts.

The exhibition covers a reasonable range of Madurese batik varieties from different regions in the island like Sampang, Sumenep, Bangkalan and Pamekasan.

However, the museum provides only limited information about the batik.

Perhaps they are saving this information for the Madurese batik discussion on Monday, June 20 at 10.00 a.m.

On the opening day, last Wednesday, the museum presented a fashion show using fabrics by young Yogyakarta designer Rosso, who designs batik for modern fashion.

At the back of the building the museum has also provided stalls for some batik shops to sell their collections.

Pesona Batik Madura is displaying beautiful, hand-painted batik produced by villagers from Tanjungbumi in Madura, a famous batik area in the island.

Pesona's collection uses only vegetable dye, which according to the owner of the shop, would not fade for dozens of years.

The prices range from Rp 50,000 (US$5.5) to Rp 5 million.

Other stalls sold less pricey batik, of course of different quality, but still beautiful.

Nanas Indah, a shop in Pamekasan, Madura, opened a temporary stall at the museum, selling, for example, a two-meter hand- painted batik with a shrimp motif for only Rp 80,000.

Unfortunately, the stalls' attendants all said they would probably not stay long at the museum because they thought few visitors would arrive.

Madurese Batik Exhibition June 15 through June 25 Madurese Batik Discussion June 20 at 10:00 a.m.

Museum Textile Indonesia Jl. KS Tubun No. 4 West Jakarta (near Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta) tel. 5606613 e-mail: mustekstil@telkom.net Contact person: Mindari/Ari