From September till begin December 2016 I will be staying on Java for my project and second ‘journey to Batik’. On my blog De reis naar Batik, www.dereisnaarbatik.blogspot.nl, I will post regular updates about my plans, adventures and travels.
During my 3 month stay I will focus on documenting the Art of Batik. In 2009 Batik became to official UNESCO heritage of Indonesia. The technique of Batik, specifically Tulis (‘Handwritten’), have been under pressure for a long time. At the same time I noticed that in the Indonesian culture & Art it is very alive. The philosophy of Batik as I call it, the language of the patterns, is used in many Art forms from painting to tattoo’s, in dance and fashion. In this ‘journey to Batik’ I’m trying to capture how Batik is being used by different creative industries on Java. How the patterns inspire all these different art forms and how modern fast developments, like software to create motifs, are exciting next to the slow, classical way of creating Batik. My fascination for patterns, both as symbols, as in the development over time, comes together in this project. I’m capturing a tradition that is changing, maybe lost, but will survive in some way. A journey to Batik.