Unlock the Mystery of Heritage : Gringsing & Kawung Part-1

I had the opportunity to attended this evening event of KIBAS ( Komunitas Batik Jawa Timur  - East Java Batik Community ) at the ever-beautiful House Of Sampoerna ( the old factory and residence of Sampoerna, the largest cigarette manufacturer in Indonesia ). KIBAS had the exhbition focused on the introduction of the myth, history and philosophy of Kawung & Gringsing, one of the oldest classical pattern of fabric found in Indonesia. The evening was warm and fluid since there's none of the formal ceremony existed ( if you'd familiar with Indonesia custom , there should be speech and hooring the guest-something etc ). We had an enjoyable evening with couple of special booth of private exhibition and demonstration (on how to create a batik, since this is always fascinate people, not just foreigners but local as well) , a descent evening snack corner focused on traditional "jajan pasar" (market snack of Madurese origin i believe, although i happened to be unlucky since this stall was very popular among guests) , the interesting gamelan/mocopatan corner as entertainment ( you can imagine chamber orchestra with 4-5 pieces and a singer ) and the exhibition itself, located at the main exhibition area.

The event was very successfull , attending more than 120 people based on HOS's guest-book (the real count will be much larger since personnels didn't do registration and come-by guests that originally have a plan to go to the museum or dine , would be attracted to the exhibition crowd.

There were much informations and things to share, and this is the part-1 of the posting dedicated to the event and gringsing-kawung philosophy.

We'll come back with more posting after this.   

Friday Batik Parade

It’s Friday and if you’re happens to be one of government officers in Java Island, so you’re most probably wear batik shirt (both you guys and girls). And why not like wearing this genuinely hand-crafted / hand-drawn Batik Fabric, both vibrant in appearance and guaranteed that it wouldn’t  at all, makes you 10-years older.

The batik tulis man’s shirt in short sleeves has a hot item in my stores, partly because nowadays gentlemen are more fashion-conscious than before (really!!) that they’re realized that being ‘wearing the same identical batik like your coworker’s not cool’ , and ‘hot pink’s not for girl domain any longer (though it still I the area of batik. Wonder why people in Indonesia seems more tolerant while seeing gentlemen wearing the most garish-color or crazy-patterned fabric AS LONG as it is batik).

Well, if that’s the way it is, the, so be it.

Happy Friday and wear your batik proudly 

* dont know why this setting decide that the best layout possibel for my photos will be of lay on the wrong side, well...   

The New Breed of Batik

It's not brand new in concept, but it's quite interesting on how Madurese Pamekasan had adapted it so quickly : it is called Market Demand. It consist of both buying power and general taste.

The new breed of Pamekasan Batik  has its own contemporary approach : it is ‘relatively quick in execution, pop (popular) in appearance and strangely, aesthetically pleasing in the eyes.

I share couple of this so called contemporary in-expensive fabric ready to be use directly into some shirt for both men and women (since almost all regencies in Java has ruled that Friday is the batik-wearing day for all government officers)

The beauty derives from its simplistic non-heavy design and philosophy (in fact, it’s known that this batik has no philosophical ‘quest’ whatsoever). And it executed beautifully. It plays with colors, geometric forms and repetition.

 

The Magic On The Making

Couple of days ago a had the opportunity to have a short visit to Podhek Village (near pamekasan city) to say hello tos community and the fellow batikers and i had the chance witnessing the process of the masterpiece in the making. It was planned to be "the one" since from the very beginning from the material selection to the batiking process it was done with meticulous attention from both Bang Rusydi and the boys.
The agenda of having masterpiece will be important because it will be just like testing the market's tolerance for this kind of quality and the price demanded 9yes, it will be more expensive than previous creation).The market acceptance will be important because this will determind whether we can produce this kind of quality again in the future, or it will face difficulties to 'convince' the respective/potential buyer to see what it should worth. So it will be a boundary-breaker also, for the sake of price and quality.
The Zen garden ; it will be named after finished; will be another milestones because of :

- The very unique background (isen-isen) that will consist of thousands yin-yang balls that afer finish it will give 3-D effect thanks to the detailed 'nitik' technique .

- this (the batiking process) will be done in both side of the fabric. It will be a twice longer time-labor as compared to 'normal' piece, and rarely the batik labor do that nowadays.

- The Background (Isen-isen) in the lower border (terang bulan) using rawan enggok rendering, that is a very fine and uniform. and dont forget again : it will be done in BOTH sides.

- Price threshold will hopefully have new higher for a piece of new Pamekasan-Podhek Batik. ( after all, it will worth the investment and the art value in it).
And just like everything on the east : pray to have all be in His way to have the result as perfect as we hoped for, and it will be a greater benefit for batik Podhek's and for all involved.

New-life of the Old Culture

Sejak beberapa saat lalu banyak kain batik berkelas dan klasik dimodifikasi peruntukannya yang mulanya berupa kain panjang / sarung, menjadi tas, dompet dan sepatu.

Ada beberapa anggapan mengenai hal ini. Di satu sisi kita melihat meningkatnya antusiasme masyarakat terhadap karya budaya kita ini, baik dari sisi ekonomi (banyak kain klasik yang tadinya berharga 'biasa' menjadi meingkat secara rupiah) , kultur (biasanya barang-barang asal batik ini juga diberikan keterangan mengenai 'genre', characteristic' , proses pembuatan dan sejarah dari kain batik tersebut).

Di sisi lain, karena mengubah peruntukan awal dari kain panjang / sarung menjadi barang lain, maka ada proses 'modifikasi' yang dilakukan. Istilah yang paling dikenal di kalangan batikers adalah "mutilasi" , karena batik tersebut mau tidak mau memang harus 'dikorbankan/digunting' untuk berubah fungsi.

Positif-negatif dari new interest ini punya bobot dan kubu pendukungnya masing-masing. Yang mendukung sering memberikan argumen 'cultural-love' dan kenyataan bahwa banyak kain-kain kuno ini memang sudah tidak sempurna kondisinya. Kubu Contra juga mengangkat argumen 'culture' (batik antik berkualitas tinggi seharusnya menjadi dokumentasi keagungan budaya bangsa dan dikoleksi sembari dipelajari, bukan dicacah menjadi tas, baju atau sepatu).

Bagaimana jika kita tetap mencintai batik sembari tetap menggunakan tas, sepatu atau baju dengan bahan batik yang berkualitas, tetapi dibuat baru dan tidak perlu kain klasik? Anda setuju ?