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