1.
They can potentially support the batik industry.
2.
Newly made batik are done only on one side of the cloth. So the gluing and the disappearing forever of the other side isn't a waste of labour, love, material, time, and art.
3.
Modern batik dyes are usually bright and cheerful, with natural dyes coming out in soft pastel colours, which have a very different feel to vintage bright coloured dyes. While newly made batik with more traditional colours of browns and blues are as beautiful and as good as vintage ones.
4.
Newly made batik can be made to order according to your personal specifications.
5.
Newly made batik tulis (not machine printed ones) are as unique as vintage batik tulis, as far as material for bags are concerned, but without the destructive effects to history, heritage, and crafts.
The Batik Blog
Against the destruction of heritage Peranakan (Straits Chinese) Batik Tulis of Java Island and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) ------------ (Formerly extinctbatik.blogspot.com)
Monday 28 January 2013
Thursday 24 January 2013
A Case Against Bags and Crafts Made of Vintage Batik
1.
Vintage batik are done on both sides of the cloth. On bags one whole side is always wasted by being glued on to some form of padding in the creation of a bag. Modern batik tulis are only done on one side of the cloth, because of modern commercial factors: costs and time. It is a sin to waste a whole side of such beautifully made material!
2.
Glues used are not always of good quality. And in a lot of cases, resulted in very strong glue smell, or air bubbles developing under the glued cloth.
3.
Glued fabrics are always going to be sensitive to climate change, namely humidity. A slight change in humidity during storage, or more drastic ones such as body moisture and rain, will cause a reaction with the glue underneath the batik tulis, and will quickly cause "bubbling" or worst still, fungus.
4.
Depending on the quality of glue, fabric, and workmanship, once folded, fold marks will appear and they are very hard to reverse. Even more so than leather, which is thicker and therefore harder to "fold" to begin with.
5.
Functionally speaking, certain types of bags will rub against your hip, and jeans, rather extensively. Colour transfers often occurred, and unlike canvas and other stronger material, vintage batik is made of old delicate cotton fabric, with hand dipped dyes sitting on them causing the cleaning of colour transfer to be almost an impossible task without endangering wiping the batik's dye itself.
6.
Another functional drawback: vintage cotton is not the most robust of material, corners of bags are known to wear out really easily, and in some cases back of them, as those parts are always prone to rubbing and wear in any bags. Vintage cotton batik wear out easily. In cases where bags were not designed well, the bags' own parts (harder ones, such as their hardware), can rub against the surface of the bags. Although these are common properties in any bags, vintage cotton batik tulis is a material that is especially prone to such frictions.
7.
Constructively speaking, vintage cotton batik tulis, even after glued to sheets of padding, will always be softer compared to canvas or leather. Tensions between soft and thin vintage cotton combined with leather is not always the best, causing a variety of awkward aesthetic effects, except in extremely well thought out designs, which is rare.
8.
They are not cheap. The BULK OF THE PRICE is on the fact that the batik tulis used is VINTAGE and sometimes allegedly RARE. The cheapest of a reasonably designed ones is about USD $250-$300 each.
Vintage batik are done on both sides of the cloth. On bags one whole side is always wasted by being glued on to some form of padding in the creation of a bag. Modern batik tulis are only done on one side of the cloth, because of modern commercial factors: costs and time. It is a sin to waste a whole side of such beautifully made material!
2.
Glues used are not always of good quality. And in a lot of cases, resulted in very strong glue smell, or air bubbles developing under the glued cloth.
3.
Glued fabrics are always going to be sensitive to climate change, namely humidity. A slight change in humidity during storage, or more drastic ones such as body moisture and rain, will cause a reaction with the glue underneath the batik tulis, and will quickly cause "bubbling" or worst still, fungus.
4.
Depending on the quality of glue, fabric, and workmanship, once folded, fold marks will appear and they are very hard to reverse. Even more so than leather, which is thicker and therefore harder to "fold" to begin with.
5.
Functionally speaking, certain types of bags will rub against your hip, and jeans, rather extensively. Colour transfers often occurred, and unlike canvas and other stronger material, vintage batik is made of old delicate cotton fabric, with hand dipped dyes sitting on them causing the cleaning of colour transfer to be almost an impossible task without endangering wiping the batik's dye itself.
6.
Another functional drawback: vintage cotton is not the most robust of material, corners of bags are known to wear out really easily, and in some cases back of them, as those parts are always prone to rubbing and wear in any bags. Vintage cotton batik wear out easily. In cases where bags were not designed well, the bags' own parts (harder ones, such as their hardware), can rub against the surface of the bags. Although these are common properties in any bags, vintage cotton batik tulis is a material that is especially prone to such frictions.
7.
Constructively speaking, vintage cotton batik tulis, even after glued to sheets of padding, will always be softer compared to canvas or leather. Tensions between soft and thin vintage cotton combined with leather is not always the best, causing a variety of awkward aesthetic effects, except in extremely well thought out designs, which is rare.
8.
They are not cheap. The BULK OF THE PRICE is on the fact that the batik tulis used is VINTAGE and sometimes allegedly RARE. The cheapest of a reasonably designed ones is about USD $250-$300 each.
(Attempted) Inventory of Exctinct Peranakan Batik Tulis of the Dutch East Indies and Java Island
Here, I will nevertheless try to post as many pictures as I could of
those amazing Batik Tulis which had been advertised for subdivision,
have been converted into handbags, and those which although had not been
explicitly advertised as such, was positioned in a very particular way,
which made them discreetly available for subdivisions and bag making.
Some have been explicitly shown as having been destroyed and re-emerged
on the other side as bags of various forms. (Many, sadly, are far less
attractive in their new forms, with awkward bag designs, mediocre
quality of craftsmanship, and of course, many of the original designs of
these Batik Tulis did not translate very well into their new shapes).
The progression of the destruction of some other Batik Tulis pieces are harder to "track", but a combination of facts, led me to conclude that the pieces were making their way into various bag production piles.
The tragedy here is that although you will see numerous photos here, these are but a mere fraction of the actual destruction that is happening at the moment. The photos were gathered within a period of approximately 2-3 months or so, through daily vigilance, approximately 12 hours a day, before I gave up. These now extinct batik were mainly originated from the early 1900s - 1960s.
All of these batik tulis pieces are currently no longer in their whole form, and therefore what you see as pictured here, no longer exist.
Other than raise awareness of their destruction, I hope that the pictures here might provide some form an online reference, of various techniques and designs soon to be forgotten or potentially so.
I know for a fact that some of these techniques have been lost in time. They may look simple, on the surface, especially if we are not familiar with the technique of Batik Tulis. But they are extremely hard to do, amazingly time consuming, and too expensive to make today.
As of today, NO ONE has been able to reproduce the colours, dyes, wave and flow of designs, intricate detailing and background, of these older Batik Tulis. (Please do a search on the basic principles and techniques of "batik tulis", you will be amazed!).
Perhaps someone out there is learning how to make Batik Tulis and perhaps might try to reproduce one of the beauties you see here, and rediscover their "recipes". If that is the case, please share your journey with us! Many will be cheering you on!
Perhaps others reading this might know of other Batik Tulis lined up for destruction. Please feel free to forward some photos.
I hope that this way, more and more traditional and older Peranakan Batik Tulis designs (both colours and forms) can be revived.
It is not that looking back is more important than moving forward. But I do not believe we can move forward properly unless we can really look back, understand and truly appreciate what we are looking back at. Picasso did not start painting in a way that he is known for now. Masters of modern art did not start off their crafts as modern artists..... Modern dancers often started off with ballet, and jazz pianist with classical piano.
Being able to look back, is being able to know where you came from, who you are, and consequently will allow us to move ahead with much more depth and definition, in a way that we can never be, if we simply wonder off purely on whims and fancy.
I thank you all for your time beforehand, and thanks for dropping by!
PS: there are a lot of pictures to include, so I will have to post them all one by one in the course of several days.
The progression of the destruction of some other Batik Tulis pieces are harder to "track", but a combination of facts, led me to conclude that the pieces were making their way into various bag production piles.
The tragedy here is that although you will see numerous photos here, these are but a mere fraction of the actual destruction that is happening at the moment. The photos were gathered within a period of approximately 2-3 months or so, through daily vigilance, approximately 12 hours a day, before I gave up. These now extinct batik were mainly originated from the early 1900s - 1960s.
All of these batik tulis pieces are currently no longer in their whole form, and therefore what you see as pictured here, no longer exist.
Other than raise awareness of their destruction, I hope that the pictures here might provide some form an online reference, of various techniques and designs soon to be forgotten or potentially so.
I know for a fact that some of these techniques have been lost in time. They may look simple, on the surface, especially if we are not familiar with the technique of Batik Tulis. But they are extremely hard to do, amazingly time consuming, and too expensive to make today.
As of today, NO ONE has been able to reproduce the colours, dyes, wave and flow of designs, intricate detailing and background, of these older Batik Tulis. (Please do a search on the basic principles and techniques of "batik tulis", you will be amazed!).
Perhaps someone out there is learning how to make Batik Tulis and perhaps might try to reproduce one of the beauties you see here, and rediscover their "recipes". If that is the case, please share your journey with us! Many will be cheering you on!
Perhaps others reading this might know of other Batik Tulis lined up for destruction. Please feel free to forward some photos.
I hope that this way, more and more traditional and older Peranakan Batik Tulis designs (both colours and forms) can be revived.
It is not that looking back is more important than moving forward. But I do not believe we can move forward properly unless we can really look back, understand and truly appreciate what we are looking back at. Picasso did not start painting in a way that he is known for now. Masters of modern art did not start off their crafts as modern artists..... Modern dancers often started off with ballet, and jazz pianist with classical piano.
Being able to look back, is being able to know where you came from, who you are, and consequently will allow us to move ahead with much more depth and definition, in a way that we can never be, if we simply wonder off purely on whims and fancy.
I thank you all for your time beforehand, and thanks for dropping by!
PS: there are a lot of pictures to include, so I will have to post them all one by one in the course of several days.
Extinction
ex·tinct
[ik-stingkt]Adjective
1. no longer in existence; that has ended or died out: an extinct species of fish.
Synonyms
1. defunct, gone, vanished. See dead. 2. archaic. 3. out.
I would define extinction here as no longer in existence in its original and whole form. It may be argued that physical and material deconstruction is not equivalent to extinction, that it is simply a functional redefinition. To take it further, from a utilitarian point of view, it's deconstruction and reconstruction (or, as we would argue, destruction) is its preservation.
There
are
several issues and challenges surrounding the preservation of vintage
and antique batik tulis, both the form and the art. An art that had in
fact briefly died, except in its most
industrial, mass produced and "low" form, and which revival is far
from being able to reach the quality that once was.
On
the one hand, old and some historical batik tulis are being destroyed faster than any
person could ever produce a new one. On the other hand, new skills have yet to
catch up with its glorious past. The craft is far from recovered. Although on the surface, its "industry" seems to
be booming.
Within
this very discouraging context, there are several further challenges in any
attempts towards its preservation.
First
of all, it is the traditional role of Batik Tulis as item of clothing. They are
made in the form of long cloth called "Kain Panjang" and
"Sarung" (Long Cloth or Sarong, when the latter is a tubular cloth
with the ends sewn together). With this come the utilitarian perception of
batik tulis, rather than batik tulis as visual art and cultural artifacts. As
such, one can then argue that vintage, antique and old long-cloths and sarungs
can be reconstructed into other "wearable" items more relevant to
modern uses, such as bags, shoes, clothings, and wallets to name the very few,
to "preserved" its utility.
Second,
the perception which developed more recently, of Batik - Tulis or otherwise -
as fabric, as material, from which "actual" clothing and other things
are made of.
Third,
there seems to be a lack of understanding, knowledge, and appreciations of
Batik Tulis beyond its "hardware". That is, beyond what the hands can
touch and the eyes can see, beyond its physical presence: its techniques, its
refinement of crafts, and its colouring. The old is thought to be replaceable
by the new, for as long as their aesthetic qualities can be matched and are
comparable to what have gone before. The art's larger socio-cultural and art
historical contexts are forgotten, its role and function as artifacts and
silent witnesses of the past dismissed.
Fourth,
lack of information, and when information is available, there seems to be a
lack of appreciation for the relevancy of these facts, as being able to
contribute to anything of significance.
Fifth,
and this is the saddest of all, and is all too common, is the mutual nurturing
between basic human greed and the fervor of capitalism, combined with the
absence of a sense of custodianship over art historical and cultural artifacts,
made the disguise of economic progress and prosperity hard to uncover.
Notably
there
appears to be some new level of appreciation of Batik Tulis in recent
years, apparently triggered by the "Batik War" between Indonesia and
Malaysia when the latter tried to officially claim the art as their own,
ignoring the historical fact that both countries were once one empire
and one peoples,
with shared history and heritage. After this kerfuffle, government
funded and other effort to rejuvenate the industry increased
somewhat. On the private sphere, a few privately funded Batik Tulis
museums
sprung up. Some survived along side the family's batik business, others
housed true gems and struggled without any
government assistance (as government funds focuses on new productions,
and only very limited
funding for the preservation of the old). A new Batik Tulis museum was
opened
recently in Bali (by a contemporary batik producer and designer "Bin
House"), signifying a continuing trend of
increasing interests in batik tulis within Indonesia as well as outside
of it. An increase in the
publication and sale of batik tulis related books in Indonesia can also
be seen. Most of the
collections covered in these books are private, collected by
non-Indonesian, and housed outside of Indonesia. Private collection by
definition were collated based on personal interest, and not
curated with a larger historical context in mind. They are therefore
mainly focused
on the aesthetics of batik tulis, with their art-historical elements
largely remained
to be explored.
Nevertheless,
as interests in batik tulis increased, older, vintage, and antique batik tulis
become more popular.
This
should have been a good thing. The increasing prices of old heritage batik
tulis could have been a proxy for their non-monetary values (i.e. historical
and cultural ones). BUT. Without any value placed on their historical context,
this have ironically pushed batik tulis further towards the commodity and raw
material pathways. Instead of becoming valuable artifacts, they were flogged
off as raw material for high end "ethnic" fashion accessories which
are marketed on the dictum of social exclusivity by the virtue of its rarity (a
bit like fur and ivory). This in turn further encouraged their destruction
through subdivisions of whole pieces, thanks to the principle of economy of scale,
and the god that is profit margin.
I have attempted to documents vintage batik tulis of great and exceptional qualities, which we believe to be have been subdivided or are in danger of certain death through subdivisions. The amount of pictures that was popping up was proven to be daunting, and the task ultimately became almost impossible as the number these beautiful pieces scheduled for destruction reached an industrial proportion, every day. As my heart sank in the realization of the truly phenomenal rate of its daily destruction, I thought to myself that there has to be another way to do something about this. Along with trying to document whole pieces that are lined up for subdivisions, I had tried to "rescue" some others, buy buying them from bag makers, and offering to buy whole pieces from those who are selling their subdivisions. This, was also proven to be too overwhelming in the end. It was not financially sustainable to be buying above market prices pieces that were priced based on how much they are worth destroyed, rather than actual market prices of collectible pieces. Not to mention the fact that I was basically contributing the to upward drive of market prices and effectively financially rewarding their destruction in the process.
My
next attempt was to support bag makers and crafts people who used only
"ethical" and "sustainable" vintage batik tulis as material
for their craft. That is, ones with some form of "vintage batik tulis
sustainability and ethical policy".
In terms of sustainability, I did a bit of research to find those who trough their trade,
actually contributed to the development of current and future batik tulis
industry and craft by utilizing newly made batik tulis. That is, those traders who build,
rather than destroy.
In
terms of ethic, I tried to establish that when using vintage batik as
material for crafts, it
can be assured that they were those which had been found in a heavily
damaged condition before being thrown into the production pile, those
which only other destination was the rubbish bin, and that they were not
rare or historically significant.
This
resulted in very time consuming activities before each purchase. In
most instances, unless you can find the source of the vintage batik
tulis in question, it is very hard to establish the actual condition of
the piece
before it was sold as material for crafts.
The number of mint, rare and exceptionally crafted vintage batik tulis being destroyed for profit is startling.
In
the
absence of real agreement on what constitute "sustainable" and
"ethical", combined with the absence of any system of "ethical
accreditation", and of any "ethic-watch" community to enforce some form
of standard, there is a real lack of power in the ability to put
consumer pressure when companies who were ethical one day, may be moved
not to
be so again the next day. Even though voices of discontent can be heard
here and there, a critical mass of ethical consumers is
yet to be reached.
Vintage
batik
tulis lovers should never be fooled by posh and swanky imagery of
ethnic-chic
fashion photography and disingenuous campaign key words such as
"heritage" and "culture". They should be careful of being made to feel
as if they are contributing to the preservation of a culture through
their purchases, when in reality they have in fact contributed to its
destruction.
I
had hoped to be able to create some form of an ad hoc system of ethical-batik
watch community. I had hoped that this way, communities of true batik and vintage batik lovers can assist
other lovers of batik tulis crafts to ensure that the products they fell in love with
can pass the scrutiny of ethical consumerism.
But,
in
the end, I sadly concluded, that safest way to ensure that we do not
innocently contribute to this shameful destruction is to completely stop
all participation in any form of trade of items which involved the use
of vintage batik tulis of any kind as
material for its construction or decoration.
To take a more extreme stance, one is best positioned not to trade in any form of crafts which involved the use of batik tulis, vintage or new, and simply collect and purchase batik tulis only in their whole long-cloth glorious 2 meters x 1 meter form.
To take a more extreme stance, one is best positioned not to trade in any form of crafts which involved the use of batik tulis, vintage or new, and simply collect and purchase batik tulis only in their whole long-cloth glorious 2 meters x 1 meter form.
Even
seemingly
responsible businesses which do not generally butcher valuable old
batik tulis had been found to occasionally do so. At times I would also
find that those who are trading and crafting
responsibly, are somehow intricately and indirectly linked to the
financing of this destruction, because everyone belongs to the same
trading community. Makers of fashion accessories, and not quite
designers (herein lies the problem also) who are against the unethical
destruction of vintage batik tulis nevertheless found themselves
accepting orders from "business partners" who would deposit their
vintage batik tulis and other vintage traditional cloths for production,
because not to do so would severely compromised their position in the
market place. This interesting business model, where vintage cloth
dealers and fashion accessory makers are inexplicably intertwined,
resulted in ownership of the ethical treatment of these vintage batik
tulis pieces solely on the vintage batik tulis dealers and highest
bidders.
In a developing country with no welfare system money has to be made whenever and where ever there are opportunities. Where vintage batik tulis collectors' market is narrow, market for vintage batik bags and fashion accessories in Indonesia is much wider. Where greed drove the unethical behaviour in the capital city and centre of money that is Jakarta, in the small villages of Java, hunger or the possibility of it does.
Cultural practices in Indonesia (at least in Java) prevent direct confrontations of ideas and philosophical differences. In the process, the lines between "pro butchery" and "anti butchery" can be extremely blurry and unclear.
In a developing country with no welfare system money has to be made whenever and where ever there are opportunities. Where vintage batik tulis collectors' market is narrow, market for vintage batik bags and fashion accessories in Indonesia is much wider. Where greed drove the unethical behaviour in the capital city and centre of money that is Jakarta, in the small villages of Java, hunger or the possibility of it does.
Cultural practices in Indonesia (at least in Java) prevent direct confrontations of ideas and philosophical differences. In the process, the lines between "pro butchery" and "anti butchery" can be extremely blurry and unclear.
The
web is large, and the reach is far (puns intended!).
For
now, all we can do, is raise this awareness, and spread the word.
In
these things, what we do, or not do, is arguably deeply personal. Personal
choices can sometimes feel a little small next to the vast issue within which
the choices are made, and sometimes it is hard to see the point. However, it is
important to remember that these personal and small steps will always leave
their footprints in the vast spheres we choose to walk into. It is important
to believe that there is always a point. And that our choices will always
matter in the end.
For now, as long as people are aware of the beauty and stories of the
disappearing vintage batik tulis in Indonesia, when they do become
extinct, at
least they won't be forgotten.
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