© 2007 Institute of Current World Affairs
The Institute awards long-term fellowships to develop a deep understanding of an issue, country, or region outside the US and to share that understanding with a wider public.
Institute of Current World Affairs - Home Page

Below is a hobbled text version of a PDF document.
In order to read the actual document please click the link below and register if necessary.
(One-time registration is free and very quick.)
Read article

8/19/1983 - Waxing Eloquent by Bryn E. Barnard

INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS BEB Jalan Seno IV Tebet Barat Waxing Eloquent Jakarta Selatan Indonesia Peter Bird Martin August Institute Current World Affairs Wheelock House West Wheelock Street Hanover NH 03755 Dear Peter Trihono always batik artist When court Yogyakarta Semarang early father house Located Yogya palace district Ngasem Road Trihono abode presented deceptively modest world weathered brown Dlanks little different those Of decrepit houses either Behind exterior rambling somewhat ramshackle complex bamboo weave pavilions criss crossed muddy alleys drenched atriums crannies mossy paths Most compound rented tenants single Trihono From Trihono worked seller P enerbit Tarate Bandung educational publisher peddling primary secondary school texts territory stretched Yogya central Java Semarang north neighboring island Bali For pleasure occasional profit raised birds burunq perketut cages under eaves hoisted above bamboo poles those neighbors For Trihono prospered until Sukarno regime fortunes Penerbit Tarate Stocked books ideologically changing times found itself bereft customers The Suharto government turned elsewhere contract publishers Trihono stacks unsold books company still turned elsewhere sustenance He turned He turned batik Batik ancient Indonesian textile process employs melted commonly flour peanut paste patter areas cloth When waxed resisted areas uncolored When boiled scraped cloth freed resist pattern remains often charecteristic network threadlike lines result cracks Whether batik evolVed spread single source veloped independently several places uncertain Histori cally practiced another Eur Asia Africa currently found China Japan Africa Indian continent Southeast Asia Batik Bryn Barnard Institute Fellow studying visual communication SoutheaSt Asia His currenh interests ourism techniques exported these regions Europe North South America Australia The known Indonesian batik Java whose earliest recorded examples sixteenth century Developed hundreds years Javanese batik became integral component island strati syncretic Indic Islamic culture incorporating convoluted vocabulary color design heavy meaning Certain batik designs ensure fertility Others employed marriage birth rituals Still others became appanage royalty symbols sources divine power Production considered spiritual discipline requiring meditative concentration properJresults Batik blossomed introduction European milled cloth seventeenth centurz reaching unprecedented heights aesthetic technical sophistication central Javanese gourts Yogya Solo There batik production became exclusive preserve court women labored months spouted copper crucible cantinq produce single tulis writing cloth Their designs remarkable their intricacy detail Some farmed peasant women surrounding villages produced onerous designs their Dyeing mostly required weeks months repeated immersion natural colorants produce indigo blues browns creamy whites became hallmarks central Javanese batik Along north coast Java related different style batik developed reflective region cosmopolitan coastal mixture Javanese Chinese Arab Malay Here indigo theflowing Dapenq kawunq patterns central Java greens yellows brilliant birds trees flowers people polychrome phantasmagor flora fauna Cirebon Semarang Pekalongan Ja karta became known their batik styles In nineteenth century batik underwent series minor revolutions Although stamped resist cloth produced wooden Javanese batik patterns paran_q kawUnq blocks southern Sumatera parts Java existed temporaneously tulis little stamp technique until introduction copper Soldered strips copper dipped shallow hotwax there stamped sides cloth produce design Repetitive monochrome patterns could single complex polychrome designs quired thirty Waxing reduced weeks hours The introduction aniline Europe century wrought further changes enlarging color vocabulary reducing dyeing again weeks hours To advantaqe technology batik factories often under Chinese ownership staffed pgimriTy young Javanese Cap waxedland atiffcally batik becme major batik Tulis waxing natural dyeing though still popular among aesthetic cogniscenti expensive anachroniSms Up until suffered little imported competition Though Java extensive commerce foreign traders their fabrics never proved serious challenge local product The introduction cheap Japanese cotton textiles however different story Like Indian chintz before batik could offer competition cheaper fabric similar segment population whose concern authenticity price In years_before during World War_Two segment included about everyone Java The batik industry collapsed recovering slowly after By Trihono entered scene Javanese batik industry dominated large marketing combines Batik Keris Batik Semar others heirs little batik factories The factories remained Yogya still about capital connec titions large scale marketing The batik giants limitations supplied their workshops independent ducers uggernaus aggressively successfully purveyed their labels outlets throughout archipelago abroad Their wares included batik sarongs slendans scarfs other traditional batik kaftans shirts swimsuits A canting curtains bedspreads yardage Though batik factories produced expensive quality tulis produce The emphasis yolume turnover struggle against plethora printed batik imitations copied original closely convincingly cracks For cheapest batik losing battle audience market product could longer distinguish batik batik imitations The method check whether pattern printed frontsurface through became Indonesian textile factory Delapan Satu introduced imitation batik printed through Procion This product looked tulis price Mass produced batik vanquished though death throes continue still Trihono first batik endeavor dismal failure volume quality batik proved uncompetitive After brief production small batik factory languished The their antecedents school texts stored cupboards ageing ompanions Chagrined beaten Trihono turned batik avenue undergoing rennaissance sorts fledgling batik painting Here finally pictorial batik medium Trihono refined sense color dimensionall design Ramayana In providedianl outlet sense humor social conscience It profitable By after series consignment displays friends galleries Trihono gathered enough studio The tenants moved entire production batik For turned former employer publisher He christened Studio Tarate Lotus Studio Batik painting though still young already produced internationally recognized artists Bambang Oetero acknowledged Javanese progenitor first experiments batik painting working Yogyakarta Batik Research Institute His centered tgaditional triad indigo white employed canting brush produce fluid organic style batik painting Goudi architecture Painting teaching combined income contract building supported Oetero family somely south Yogya village Babadan Exhibitions taken United States Australia South Africa New Zealand Canada Japan Syria Holland Belgium Sweden Bambang himself traveled United States Australia New Zealand lecture universities institutes He Yogya known artist Following Bambang other artists taken batik paint medium Kuswadji lecturer ASRI Yogyakarta academy began batik painting UnliketBambang mostly A cockfight Bambang Oetero A Ramayana scene Kuswadji Here Hanuman Rama Lesmana their armies fight Kumbakarna And other denizens Aleng A Kufic batik Amri Yahya genre scenes cockfights carts fields villages occasional abstract Kuswadji concentrated scenes Ramayana Mahabaratha Hindu poems provided basis Java Indic literature dance drama monumental architecture Kuswadji worked wayanq shadow puppet theater style abstracted figurative representation using traditional colors He later expanded chromatic reper toire using splashed Indigosol produce rather garish blending greens violets crimsons yellows And train entire family wayang techniqu derivatives Sons daughters phews cousins occasional Outsider showed their Kuwadji gallery Like Bambang exhibited extensively overseas Amri Yahya monetarily successful batik painting neers He youngest Born graduated ASRI quickly established himself Yogya premier batik abstract expressionist applied controlled procedurally rigid medium Vibrant kinetiC colossal paintings thousand dollars during times those competitors Most oddly enough titled lebak swamp reference Amri rural childhood Much Amri proved particularly popular Middle East where because Islamic prohibitions figurative represen tation still frowned Though advertised expressions Islamic piety recent series Kufic batiks Koranic writing field representational color doubt canny thrusts profitable Muslim market Like competitors Amri designed batik yardage executed canting equipped assistants fabric first designer batik abstract representational patterns kaftan pillowcase market Though other Yogyakarta artists tried their batik painting years following Bambang Oetero initial experi mentS Kuswadji Amri obvious success structured route those llowed With their expensive homes fancy hdios attended classes flung reputations these three artists obvious models hordes imitators began appear Yogya Taman Sari district This Yogya waxing popularity tourist destina particularly among young drifter travelers nomads affluence brought their music relaxed moral standards guacamole smoothees cheap cotton clothinq passion hashhish psilocybin mushrooms souvenirs Inexpensive atmospheric culturally sophisticated Yogyakarta ideal Exotic Town tropical Kathmandu chock dusty lanes crumbli palace walls aqueducts fields markets picturesque views smoking Mount Merapi nearby volcano Yogya functioning court kraton gamelan shadow dance troupes course batik An drive famed Borobudur Buddhist nument Yogya Prambanam Hindu temple complex backdrop Sendratari Ramayana night dance drama designed bring Ramayana reliefs Candi Loro Jonggrang temple Held during months season theatrical extravaganza required dancers gamelans prodigious amounts electricity lighting sound plenty kerosene pyrotechnic The begun packed Yggya hotels losmens hostels season Every evening visitors would buses colts buses Prambanam would streets Yogya search souvenirs To service latter pursuit souvenir shops vendors sprang throughout toadstools choking sidewalks their fecundity Leather goods Yogya specialty popular among foreigners So produced wayang kulit puppets So shirts So batik By Taman Sari batik painting community almost I000 strong The tourist income spread artist scraped occasional looked sales peers determine Few Indonesians purchased The artists serviced mafia becak drivers guides tourists another sister exacting artist commission painting Even unaccompanied tourists often closely followed these parasites ensure spoils properly divided For recalcitrant revenge swift terrible artist black listed guides studio trashed grafitti excrement three wheeled ubiquitous Southeast Asia The tourists masse The Taman Sari artists ready masse their Kuswadji Ramayana wayang scenes their Bambang Oetero bullock carts their Amri Yah abstracts complete signatures The original artists protested flagrant plagiarism forgery avail Indonesia recognizes copyright News artist selling theme color scheme design quickly spread through Taman Sari yester batik original became today bargain special tomorrow factory reject Some artists rather loose process along hastily created batik sellers enabling stamp hundreds original paintings technique saturation bombing Trihono elite triad Yogya Batik Brahmins neither Sudras Taman Sari A latecomer batik painting scene developed style admirably suited batik medium intricate He partial Ramayana scenes partially because marketability These painted iconographic exactitude stylisitic reference wayang kulit Prambanam reliefs Trihono produced occasional genre scene Yogya market singing contest simple elegant landscapes His style proved popular visitors widely imitated signature Though flattery entree enough Yogya batik elite Trihono purchase requisite studio marble jacketed He exhibit however Netherlands Germanay USA Jakarta Kalimantan He attracted coterie oddly Bglinese artists lived Studio Tarate Puspa Made Agung Dewo spending years learning painting before heading independent careers other fields More transient foreign tourists first trickle flood visited studio three months learn secrets Trihono gentle manner patient instruction insistence students popular teacher The foreign stream eventually eventually brought Trihono batik community profitable coveted mention tourist guide batik studios visit Trihono secure Trihono style batik artists closely related technique updated version traditional light method dyeing Scraped method removal In contemporary batik factories areas would eventually either white brown waxed cloth indigo Subsequently areas become brown scraped cloth again The still waxed retained original white cream color Areas brown turned velvety black Trihono method colors order employs types esist ardwax differently affected solution A Trihono Ram ayana scene Rawana Trijata Shinta Rawana kingdom Alengka mottled technique A Trihono Ramayana scene Rawana Rama fight skies Alengka mottled technique caustic Trihono applied areas eventuallz brown dissolves caustic rubbed tooth brush His other impervious solution resist applied areas remain white To doubly reach these areas applied sides cloth After waxing dyeing resist removal cloth displays areas white black mottled regions golden brown This mottled effect achieved repeat treatments caustic inter spersed brown golden brown baths This mottled brown though similar technique Bambang Oetero become Trihono trademark Trihono makes batik techniques One method developed Trihono Balinese artist Mad4 employB applied pointillist style layer layer As waxing progresse cloth baths successive darker colors firstyellow green brown black The result 16oks rather Serat though Mad subject matter tends towards Balinese market scenes dance masks Mad Studio Tarate pointillist technique carried Dewo ASRI student He ethod create batik reproductions Prambanam Ramayana reliefs His references X reproductions Western photos Yet third Trihono method involves immersing resisted cloth drawing outlines bleaching cloth white The resisted areas remain colored batik drawing The cloth waxed A Trihono landscape other technique boats example bleach nique Lesmana shoots golden A market scene Made using kijagq Shinta Trihono pointillist technique Rama Dewo Balinese style figures iconography Trihono mottled technique produce batik Shinta Hanuman Rama Lesmana other painted Puspa using Balinese Ramayana characters depicted figures iconography Dewo rendition Pranbanam relief using pointillist technique Such continual experimentation Trihono master waxing dyeing technique sought after technical instruction Indonesian foreign artists teachers Local artists however Studio Tarate Taman Sari painters attended Trihono relatively inexpensive courses US tenth price asked Batik Research Institute their technica batik course though attempted dupli Trihono methods Perhaps Trihono continual exposure exotic formulas sensitized Only small amounts produce allergic hives rashs Or perhaps other artists dislike Trihono refusal guides their customary percent studio vandalized retaliation To avoid extorters works mostly commission gallery sales rooms studio pryig In recent years Trihono social conscience begun assert itself He still Ramayana scenes genre paintings scapes They after sales Now however occasional batik social commentary Such paintings rarely Trihono satisfying produced decorations neighbors Only Amri Yahya stracted reactions Israe invasion Lebanon other ticket items close Trihono thoughtful social critiques But whereas Amri social abstracts still essentially decorative Trihono mentaries polital cartoons topical poignant Trihono rendition This batik depicts peculi Hanuman monkey fight Javanese Ramayana related Pasa Naga arrow Hanuman lusting Shinta Rawana attendant Trijata whisks Alengka While flying across however hormones better ejaculates The semen falls where swallowed subse quent children monsters triqanqqa monkey The market Triho latest efforts Commissioned German tourist piece reached waxing staqe Here Trihono chosen depict typical Javanese event heightening contrast between tradition haggling males dress rarely outside courts marriage ceremonies The children modrn shorts chested other sports Total Sola clise shirt detailed below Much Trihono social commentary sublimin wihhin hardly noticeable juxtapositions modernity tradition present urban sophisticate country bumpkin In unfinished batik The Bird Market example filled scene decorative figures tradi tional Javanese dress Here peasant straw kerchief shorts Next stands bakul Javanese female petty entrepeneur traditional health potions Men dressed courtiers haggle birds Above their heads hangs rattan metal cages festooned corative covers A typical Jav anese village palms vegetation complete cheery festive scene Al Also crowd shorts shirt other chested The shirt reads Total Solar EcliDse typical shirts posters other Eclipse paraphernalia produced June Event Javaand Sulawesi The tee_shirt itself remarkable That found batik painting however revolutionary Tri taken typical batik crowded decor ative local color single shirt transported scene present Java Enter Reality Such juxtaposi tions everyday Javanese occurences Trihono dared commit Another unfinished Tri batik flirts allegory Called Ikan Memberontak The Revolt Fishe piece dominated bloated stomach bulging single staring wayang demon ItS teeth pointed cruel parted awaiting their Below monster small small fishes So nibble giant grouper other scales little Davids helpless alone concert capable besting Goliath This painting waxing stage quite Tri fears completed could local officials wrong They might think I about Indonesia He smiles But course story He knows Indonesian government Southeast Asian governments lightly revolt allegorical revolt In Indonesia political conscience tempered caution Trihono qualms about completing Mr Ten Percent important batik statement commentary Taman Sari itself In piece Trihono depicted studio complete split bamboo walls paintings grace cicaks ubiquitous lizards tropics A tourist couple entered occupies center stage Perh Australian perhaps European possibly American albinos stand sandals shorts nosed skinned sandy haired The woman braless wears See Bali camera bearded companion checker shirt Walkman The objects their interest Tfihono diminutive female waxing assistants demurely floor cantings cloth They conventional Javanese dress sleeved kebaya sarung Chaste subdued traditional provide Ikan memberontak Mr Ten Percent In monarchi Thailand government about masses Shakespeare Hamlet royal assasination banned Mr Ten Percent detail Mr Ten Percent detail didactic contrast giants towering above Outside framed studio doorway Javanese One holds bicycle other shirt identifying Mr Ten Pe rcent derogative Indonesian scalper guide breed The stare demon ravenous insatiable They await vultures carrion Trihono first admit painting aesthetically flawed Unlike Mr Ten Percent neither graceful The figures stiff almost clumsy perspective skewed Yet apparent unintentional naivete detracts little story Rather Trihono caricaturizations piece It masterful encapsulation symbiotic tourist artist guide relation Trihono received scant reward critical thinking occasional chuckle passing tourists Mr Ten Percent Painted almost years piece Studio duckling moving hallway niche filling gallery other paintings finished Foreign visitors inevitably batik reflec inevitably harsh critique idealization Trihono landscapes genre scenes Ramayana vignettes universal preferences scenes where tourist Dreamlike timeless decorative subsUme content within catch tourist Their Java idyll demons monkeys flowers markets fields unsoiled tourists leprous Midas touch Decorations statements works created bought ideal souvenirs It would incorrect decorative works vapid empty They extensions traditional Javanese artistic concern intricate detail abstracted floristic design Like Ramayana concerns permeate culture natural Taman Sari artists should choose forms their frameable batiks Unlike their traditional however their batik sarungs kratons sculptures carving batik aintinas serve ceremonial religious metaphysical purpose bought decoration Javanese Other Indonesians Thus batik paintings really under Javanese artistic control Like sidewalk painters Sacre Coeur Paris batik painters Yogyakarta mercy their market Their buyers mostly foreign mostly tourists superficial knowledge local history politics For members select audience bBtik painting memento proof Java experience dances shadow plays psilocybin mushrooms pageantry landscape pictorial evidence folks These pictures these pictures demand The batik artists little recourse produce For painters operating margins would penurious New York garret artist pause painting might painting cannot Bereft longstanding traditions lacking corpus aesthe criteria other borrowed batik tulis Taman Sari artists adept interpreting foreign desires foreign stereo types foreign prejudices their The successful guessers It follows prestige determined externally number paintings number foreign exhibitions lucky foreign lectureships accepted The unconventional batik artist accolades little money prestige Little wonder Taman Sari produced Kathe Kollowitz Goya Picasso Marshall Arisman Judy Chicago Little wonder Taman Sari produced Trihono The Western system artist discovery investment promotion success rewards unconventional artists financial prizes The Yogyakarta system reverse penalizin unconventional penury anonymity awarding plums those whose Western notion Javanese Only those succeed afford thestomach spirit Trihono those having combination money inclination batik paintings batik souvenirs Even Trihono occasional blossoms however without nourishment encouragement To unconventional think paint requires support perhaps aethetically knowledgeable patrons batik museum Bali Puri Lukisan could purchase examples current acceptable prices rewards present artists standards their succes ASRI Yogyakarta academy could So could Batik Research Institute Such instituion would advantage keeping Yogya It would advantage however acting Salon standards could easily rigid arbitrary stifling current touristic measure Trihono might revolting fishes unwelcome environment today Or might The standards would least indigenous measure aesthetic control w6uld least local hands Batik could Javanese Sincerely BryBarnard I Trihono Dewo student dyeing cloth Studio Tarate List Illustrations Javanese batik patterns The pgranq pattern cloth covered cardboard files kawunq pattern piece wrapping paper A canting BEB A cockfight Bambang Oetero Home artist Bambang Babadan village Yogyakarta A Ramayana scene Kuswadji Gallery artist Alun Alun Yogyakata A Kufic batik Amri Yahya Gallery artist Yogy akarta A Trihono Ramayana scene Studio Tarate Yogyakarta A Trihono Ramayana scene Studio Tarate Yogyakarta A Trihono landscape Studio Tarate Yogykarta Lesmana shoots golden Dewo Studio Tarate Yogykarta Market scene Made Studio Tarate Yogyakarta Shinta Hanuman Puspa Studio Tarate Yogykakarta Rama Lesmana Dewo Studio Tarate Yogyakarta Hanuman Naga Trihono Studio Tarate Yogyakarta Hanuman Trijata Trihono Studio Tarate Yogyakarta The Bird Market Trihono Studio Tarate Yogyakarta Ikan memberontak Trihono Studio Tarate Yogyakarta Mr Ten Percent Trihono Studio Tarate Yogyakarta Mr Ten Percent detail Trihono Studio Tarate Yogyakarta Mr Ten Percent detail Trihono Studio Tarate Yogyakarta 20Trihono Dewo student Studio Tarate Yogyakarta Received Hanover