The exhibition, my work ‘Batik Kompeni’ and events
Since me & Tony were in Laos in 2024 we have been thinking of bringing the cloths we saw there during the symposium and the people who make them together. Diving deeper in the meaning behind the Hmong Story Cloth and how they were made, functioning as living archives of memory, displacement and resilience, we recognized this in other storytelling cloths as well.
The exhibition The Cloth Remembers held at aNERDGallery in Singapore from 16 January 2026 – 28 February 2026 had traditional story cloth next to re-imagined story cloth by HAFI from Singapore, Mee Cha from Laos, Saul Chan Htoo Sang from Myanmar and me.
For my re-imagined story cloth I was inspired by Batik Kompeni. In the exhibition we got to add two of these batiks. An older one from around 1920-1930. We got it on loan from Galerie Rudolf Smend.
This hand-drawn batik kompeni in blue and red, showing marching soldiers and mounted horsemen alongside ships, elephants, tigers and flowers across the body of the cloth. The red head panel of the cloth is adorned with flowers and birds.
The second one, is a Batik Kompeni – Repro Batik Perang Lombok. Batik Kompeni refers to batik that depict war scenes. These batik designs were first made in Pekalongan, Java, at the end of the 19th century. Renowned batik ateliers made these designs based on the Aceh war, which was part of a broader series of violent conflicts to insure Dutch colonial rule over Indonesia. In the 1920s, batik workshops in Cirebon started remaking this design, adding modern warfare imagery such as planes and firearms, to reflect the ongoing resistance to colonial oppression. These war batiks were named Batik Perang Lombok by a Dutch researcher in the 1990s although they are locally known as Batik Kompeni, after Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC, Dutch East India Company).
For my own work I wanted to create a Batik Kompeni that depicts the actual history of the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC, Dutch East India Company) which had an impact to this day. This work highlights the era of Jan Pieterszoon Coen (J.P. Coen), a naval officer and former Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, who ordered massacres and forced deportations that resulted in the displacement of the people of Banda in the 17th century. The scene is juxtaposed with the removal of his statue in Batavia during the Japanese occupation as well as the demonstration around his statue in Hoorn, Netherlands in 2020.
At the centre of this batik is a Nutmeg tree, the reason for the Dutch to start this chapter of violence, drawn together with a nutmeg pigeon (Ducula spilorrhoa) flying away, bringing the nutmeg to freedom.
On Thursday 15 January late afternoon we opened the show, together with the rebranding launch of aNERD. So many came, which was a lovely surprise, wonderful to see everyone so soon again. For the re-branding a lovely video is made as well, watch below. It was so great to be here during this milestone. aNERD opened in October 2022, I was a month earlier in Singapore when Tony just got the keys. It was also the first time we met in person, meeting online in the pandemic. What Tony accomplished in 3 years time is really remarkable. aNERD is The place for textile nerds & creatives to gather, learn, do and share in Singapore. I am so happy to be one of those nerds!
On Saturday 17 January we had a paneltalk, Remembering the Cloth: Artists in Conversation. An afternoon in which the participating artists; HAFI, Saul Chan Htoo Sang, me and curator Tony Sugiarta to reflect on the exhibition ‘The Cloth Remembers’, discussing story cloth as living archives of memory, displacement and resilience. Intertwined with our own lived experiences, the conversation explores how textiles and contemporary storytelling reimagine identity, community and collective hope.
On Saturday 24 January I got to give the Paper Sarong workshop for the first time in Singapore at aNERDgallery. During the week I was testing out different materials to get the right result. With 18 participants, we were more than fully booked, having them working in 6 groups creating a paper sarong. Starting with an introduction on how batiks can have different designs depending on when they were made and what size, I invited everyone to draw first individually. Drawing something that they thought would represent them, big or small, could be a pretty flower you saw that morning or a symbol explaining more about who they are.
After creating these, I asked each group to put their drawings together into one bigger design, by discussing what everyone drew and why and how it can be put together. This is always such a interesting moment in which participants get really into it. The designs were divers and so much fun. A big lotus flower, view of Marina Bay, the land, the sea & the sky twice, food motifs in an udan liris design & two very sad cats.
We made a round to every group sharing the story of their paper sarong. My favorite part of this workshop. It is wonderful to see how the participants, often strangers at first, can make this together in just of few hours.
The exhibition ‘The Cloth Remembers‘ at aNERDgallery was part of Singapore Art Week.
My travel to Singapore is made possible by the Mondriaan Fonds International Voucher.