TRAVEL: Jakarta, The Textile Museum

I'm off on a bucket list trip: a snorkel trip on a boat trip to the Coral Triangle and a location in it in Indonesia, which most agree is among the primo places to see pristine reefs and their denizens.

On my free day while resting at the Sheraton Jakarta, the group members gathered and one of them,  MaryAnn Lewis, and I went into downtown Jakarta to see the Textile Museum and the National Museum. We'd been warned about traffic, but to me, a long-time LA resident, it seemed very normal.  The autos were outnumbered by the thousands of motorbikes used by everyone, even families of 4 wedged onto into the seats buzzing around the city.

The sculpture above commemorates the terrible typhoons experienced by Asia, and Mary Ann, the group's stalwart snorkeler.

My study of batik had to wait until I got back home.  These photos are of what I think are modern batik - dyed with non-vegetal dyes and using images, which most Indonesian Muslims would not use.  Original colors were indigo blue, beige, brown and black.

This design features the bird-of-paradise, the iconic bird of Indonesia, which I first thought was a peacock.   

The museum had little signage and names were all in the Indonesian language.  this looks very old, however.

These really are peacocks. 

 This looks very European and the colors look like Japanese Imari.

 I thought this one marvelous - and the colors look more typical. As they do on this one - seems to be a combination - samples of designs and a bird form.

A rich and lovely design.  Below, some samples from an internet article of traditional designs for comparision.

Parang was once used exclusively by the royal courts of Central Java. It has several suggested meanings such as 'rugged rock', 'knife pattern' or 'broken blade'. The Parang design consists of slanting rows of thick knife-like segments running in parallel diagonal bands. Parang usually alternated with narrower bands in a darker contrasting color. These darker bands contain another design element, a line of lozenge-shaped motifs call mlinjon. There are many variations of this basic striped pattern with its elegant sweeping lines, with over forty parang designs recorded. The most famous is the 'Parang Rusak' which in its most classical form consisting of rows of softly folded parang. This motif also appears in media other than batik, including woodcarving and as ornamentation on gamelan musical instruments.

Ceplok is a general name for a whole series of geometric designs based on squares, rhombs, circles, stars, etc. Although fundamentally geometric, ceplok can also represent abstractions and stylization of flowers, buds, seeds and even animals. Variations in color intensity can create illusions of depth and the overall effect is not unlike medallion patterns seen on Turkish tribal rugs. The Indonesian population is largely Muslim, a religion that forbids the portrayal of animal and human forms in a realistic manner. To get around this prohibition, the batik worker does not attempt to express this matter in a realistic form. A single element of the form is chosen and then that element is repeated again and again in the pattern.

 Kawung is another very old design consisting of intersecting circles, known in Java since at least the thirteenth century. This design has appeared carved into the walls of many temples throughout Java such as Prambanan near Jogjakarta and Kediri in East Java. For many years, this pattern was reserved for the royal court of the Sultan of Jogjakarta. The circles are sometimes embellished inside with two or more small crosses or other ornaments such as intersecting lines or dots. It has been suggested that the ovals might represent flora such as the fruit of the kapok (silk cotton) tree or the aren (sugar palm).

LACMA has a large textile collection - I shall go off and find some more batik to study.  It's fascinating.  The bazaar behind the charming Dutch colonial building had many designs for sale, but none as lovely as what were in the museum, so I finally broke down and bought a couple lengths in the hotel before I went home.  They will make lovely pull over shirts.