Tracing batik's threads across the North Coast of Java

Tracing batik's threads across the North Coast of Java

Fabric of Enchantment: Batik from the North Coast of Java,
a catalog published in conjunction with the exhibition at the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art, Oct. 31, 1996 - Jan. 26, 1997.

Copublished by Los Angeles Museum of Art, Los Angeles, and
Weatherhill Inc., New York, 1996.

240 pp.

Rp 165,000.

JAKARTA (JP): Photojournalist Inger McCabe Elliott found her
world in the late 1960s was all black and white: black and white
were the soldiers dying in Southeast Asia, black and white was
the death of Robert Kennedy, and the same grim hues "colored" so
many other tumultuous events of those years.

It was in this mood that she first discovered some beautiful
colored cloth in a curio shop in Hong Kong. These were the
colorful batik of the pasisir, the north coast of Java.

A whole new world opened up for her but she did not only
become a passionate collector. She used these designs to create
new possibilities, such as printing them for cloth used in
upholstery and drapery. She also did research on the
geographical, cultural and historical context of this fabric,
with the results published in 1984 in the book Batik: Fabled
Cloth of Java.

In 1991 she found a home for her collection at the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art. In 1996, the museum organized an exhibition
of the collection, which ran from Oct. 31, 1996 through Jan. 26,
1997. Fabric of Enchantment, the catalog for the exhibit, is 240
pages hardbound, unusually large if compared to Indonesian
equivalents.

One does not have to be an expert to know there are numerous
types of batik. There are differences in material, such as cotton
and silk, and recently synthetic materials, as well as linen and
wool. There are differences in technique, such as the hand-drawn,
printed (cap) or a mixture of the two. There is the printed
material, similar to ordinary material only using traditional
batik designs. However, it takes an expert's eye to differentiate
between the batik originating from different regions and an even
more discerning knowledge to distinguish between works of
different batik artists. This book may enable the viewer to
understand and appreciate the batik from the north coast of Java.

To achieve this, Peter Carey a historian from Trinity College,
Oxford, contributed a short but interesting essay about the
cultural history of that region. The pasisir was the meeting
place for travelers, merchants and men of religion from the far-
flung corners of the Orient long before the arrival of the
Europeans.

Java had long been renowned for its riches, the product of a
bountiful climate. Prominent among its products were rice and
timber. Rice was consumed in Java and was also traded for spices
in eastern Indonesia. Timber was mainly used to support a
flourishing shipbuilding industry along the north coast.

Intermarriage of these foreigners with local women produced
female offspring of fabled beauty. Some of them became nyai
(mistresses) to the Europeans, thus spawning an Eurasian
community. These women preferred to dress themselves in batik.

According to Rens Heringa, an authority on batik and clothing,
pasisir batik workshops were commonly run by persons of mixed
Indonesian-Chinese, Indonesian-European and Indonesian-Arab
descent. It formed part of a recent development of the batik
tradition. Traditionally, mainly cloths with red and blue
decorations were produced in the home and cottage industry.

Catering to the preferences of the middle and upper strata
among a population of mixed ethnic origin, these colorful pieces
were created and came into full bloom after the synthetic dyes
were invented towards the end of the 19th century. Heringa
elaborates on the clothing traditions and the symbols used as
decorations. Clothing and jewelry, she says, were the sole
property of the women. The possession of a hoard of batik cloth
and jewelry, easy to pack and easy to pawn, was insurance against
times of need for most women.

Harmen Veldhuisen, the author of the book Batik Belanda,
focused his essay on the entrepreneurs of batik, mostly women,
who sometimes had to resort to batik to make a living after their
husbands died or left them. One of them, E. van Zuylen, became
famed for her designs and her signature was often faked by other
entrepreneurs. Veldhuisen also traces the history of batik from a
home craft into an industry.

The largest part of this catalog, descriptions of the cloths
on exhibit, is written by Heringa and Veldhuisen together. Each
piece is described and the possible maker and wearer mentioned if
it can be determined from extant evidence. Besides batik or
clothing, the collection also includes a fair amount of
ceremonial cloths.

A glossary on the different terms in several languages is
included as well as three appendixes. The first two are on the
design format and stylistic variations of the kain panjang (the
long piece) and the sarong (the tubular form), whereas the third
discusses materials and techniques.

The book is beautifully illustrated, but the colors are kept
rather pale compared to the actual batik, probably in an attempt
to emphasize the antiquity of the pieces. One should also accept
the fact that although the text is very comprehensive, the pieces
are limited to the collection of Ms. McCabe Elliot, and do not
include pieces manufactured in Indonesia today.

-- Myra Sidharta