Dye dye must try: Singapore’s batik culture gets a fashion and art makeover
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CNA Lifestyle
Dye dye must try: Singapore's batik culture gets a fashion and art makeover
With batik seeing a resurgence in popularity in recent years, CNA Lifestyle takes a quick expect at how the art grade has been embraced as well as the challenges its proponents face up.
Batik fashion from Baju Past Oniatta. (Photograph: Oniatta Effendi)
Last December, Oniatta Effendi spent three days in Yogyakarta and Solo, barging into people's homes looking for batik.
The Singaporean theatre actress was on one of her regular trips to Indonesia, where she makes it a point to visit villages of batik makers. "I went to three unlike kampongs and just went within someone's house," she said, with a express mirth. "They'd show us their wares, and I would buy and bring them back."
A hardcore batik enthusiast, Oniatta has a bunch of paintings hanging at home, a stack of books in her library and a drove of more than 40 pieces of fabric. She as well creates batik outfits for her three-year-old label Baju By Oniatta.
"To me, batik has a life – there's a soul and a heartbeat in it, when you actually become to a kampong and encounter the precision, craft and why they do it," said the 44-year-old. "And now, everybody seems to desire a slice of it."
A Civilization OF WEARING BATIK
The past couple of years has seen a resurgence in interest in batik in Singapore, with Baju By Oniatta beingness merely one of a handful of labels championing batik, which include the likes of YeoMama Batik, Pakai and Gypsied.
There have too been pop-upwards events, such as those from The Batik People and Oniatta's ain My Kain Of Batik last year.
And it'southward non just in style but in the arts too, with batik-making classes and the occasional exhibition springing up.
Over at the Malay Heritage Eye is i such show almost batik. Of Wax, Dyes And Labour, a show under Singapore Art Week, features works of immature artists that put a spotlight on information technology.
Among these is a 5m-long piece of batik with the phrases "Civilization Of Batik" and "Habiliment Batik To Be Asian" written on information technology.
Elsewhere, at that place's a batik dress similar to the iconic Singapore Daughter'southward sarong kebaya; and ceramic versions of the canting, the metal tool used to create designs on the fabric. There's even a operation by one of the artists, who will be folding pieces of batik fabrics.
The show aims to explore what the identity of batik is in Singapore, said curator and artist Fajrina Razak, xxx, who also made the manifesto-like fabric installation.
"Batik is so shut to usa. We use it on a daily basis, nosotros wear it for weddings, formal events, at home and even in funerals in the Malay culture. Nosotros have a culture of wearing, buying and trading batik – our ancestors did that a lot in the past and it's still happening at present," she said.
NO BATIK INDUSTRY IN SINGAPORE
The aboriginal technique of wax-resist dyeing applied to cloth is mayhap i of the region'south iconic trademarks and very popular in Malaysia and Republic of indonesia. It was even designated an Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO.
Simply while many in Singapore love to utilize it, there'south non much in terms of batik production here.
"Nosotros don't have a culture of production, no batik manufacture. While there are artists who run batik studios, information technology'southward solely for fine art-making; not for fabrics or mass production," said Fajrina, who cited the lack of manpower and proper facilities as some of the main reasons.
"It'due south labour intensive, and the labour toll is inexpensive in Republic of indonesia and Malaysia. To practice batik, you also need a big outdoor infinite. In Singapore, I don't remember people would want to become through all that trouble."
That means many batik proponents here just turn to neighbouring countries to procure them, like Oniatta, who also pointed out that not all batik are made equal. While she sources hers straight from batik-making villages, the market place is likewise total of lesser-quality stuff using digital prints.
Another hurdle batik lovers have is its reputation of being culturally specific to the Malay community.
"Batik belongs to everyone – information technology's a medium. What nosotros 'own' are the motifs that reflect us," said Fajrina, citing, for instance, how the deject motif called batik megamendung is Chinese-inspired, or how the Dutch were influential in the mass production of batik, using the copper implement called tjap.
She added: "Fifty-fifty in India and Nippon, y'all notice similar techniques, even if they don't call information technology batik."
Creative person Yang Jie, who is contributing an interactive, umbrella-similar batik sculpture to the exhibition, shared how he discovered there was a Yunnan tribe that did something similar too while researching for the prove. "The idea of a single craft restricted to a single type of person is something that's a bit outdated," he said.
BATIK FOR THE FUTURE
And speaking of outdated, one of the challenges that Singapore's batik lovers has always faced is to button it into the contemporary space.
While a handful from the older generation of artists use batik – including the late Jaafar Latiff and Sarkasi Said, who had a big show a couple of years back – in that location aren't many from the electric current generation who do and then, said Fajrina.
She reckons information technology might seem a bit "erstwhile school" for younger artists, who are more excited about mediums similar digital fine art, to desire to explore it. Simply silk screening or digital printing might really be a style of reinventing the batik wheel in the art-making world.
When it comes to her fashion designs, new characterization Pakai's Ida Supahat prefers to utilize a minimal touch of batik.
"Some would think using batik ways creating something 'in your face' with the traditional brown or batik prints all over, but I would use it in a subtle manner," said the 28-year-old, calculation that she would also try to continue in heed other communities and create cheongsam- or kurti-style designs in her drove.
"I think it'south non simply open to the Malay Muslim or Javanese community. I've a lot of customers who are Chinese or Indian, so I try to pattern them in a way that fits any wardrobe."
For Oniatta, it'southward all about balancing today'due south needs and doing justice to its heritage. "It's not near reinventing the batik but reinventing the way it is worn," she said.
"Batik is completely sensorial; it'southward not fast way for me. For many, batik is merely a pattern but there's a massive ecosystem that nosotros are supporting when we buy one – the people who make them have their little stories to tell."
One of those, mayhap, is of a Singaporean woman who went all the way to Indonesia to visit them in their kampong homes.
Of Wax, Dyes And Labour runs from Jan 19 to Feb 9 at the Malay Heritage Eye. For more information on Singapore Art Calendar week, visit world wide web.artweek.sg.
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/entertainment/batik-singapore-fashion-art-culture-222266
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