Greed, Ignorance, and Extinction: Vintage Batik in Indonesia

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.

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.

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.