PARANG: Beyond The Decoration // IDEATION

INSPIRATION, REFERENCES

The project began with my curiosity of how batik is perceived in society nowadays, particularly among urban young adults. I discovered how batik developed on two levels in Java, one as a court art where it was an “extension of a refined philosophy” and another as a folk art outside of the palace walls where its “technical and decorative potentials” were explored (Tirta, 1996). Regarding batik as court art, Inger McCabe Elliot in Batik: Fabled Cloth of Java noted that during the 18th century, sultans of Yogyakarta and Surakarta declared certain patterns as sacred and restricted.

As the courts began to modernize alongside society, such patterns had lost their significance and gradually being reduced into mere decorative designs. One hypothesis came from Tourism, Heritage, and National Culture in Java: Dilemmas of a Local Community penned by Heidi Dahles, stating that the modernization and ‘touristification’ of Yogyakarta could be one of the causes of the shift. The city was established by Indonesian government as a national tourism destination with its policy stating “priority should be given to the dissemination of national culture and has allowed local identity to thrive only if it fits in with the national development,” (Dahles, 2001). Refocusing my research on the shifting meaning and significance of sacred patterns established by the courts, I question how and what caused it, and where does it stand now.

PROCESSES

My observation and research lead me to conclude that batik is as much about the pattern being drawn as it is about the way it is made, particularly when it comes to Javanese batik. Since Javanese batik essentially is an illustrated story depicting life values and philosophies, I directed a narrative revolving around similar ideas contextualized for the contemporary audience, with first establishing the historical accuracy of said sacred batik patterns. The discovery of new ideas would not happen without critically thinking about the past, and thus I strive for the project to be an appropriate reminder to the contemporary audience of how significant batik patterns can be.


Image credit: Pinterest, personal