Exhibition to showcase batik as shared S-E Asian cultural heritage

Batik is traditionally linked to Java, but batik clothing today weaves together Indian, Chinese and Malay elements to create a distinctly South-east Asian cultural heritage, said local fashion designer Tan Sheau Yun.

The owner of Tong Tong Friendship Store uses Indian fabrics for her batik, and noted how batik encompasses Chinese iconography and motifs as well, like the peonies and butterflies associated with the Chinese folktale The Butterfly Lovers, a heart-rending story about a pair of lovers.

"I think it is very important that we preserve batik because it has elements from a lot of our ancestral civilisations, thus making it so special," she said.

Ms Tan is one of the local designers whose creations will be showcased at the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) from Friday to Oct 2.

Some of the batik designs on show are replicas of the styles from the times of previous generations, with the exhibition's curator Lee Chor Lin working with fashion designers to reimagine and replicate them.

Called Batik Kita: Dressing in Port Cities - batik kita in Malay or Bahasa Indonesia means our batik - the exhibition will feature more than 100 masterpieces from overseas and local lenders, as well as rarely seen batik pieces from the national collection, which conserves artefacts in various fields.

The exhibition showcases the rich history of batik, from its traditional roots to contemporary designs, through various cross-cultural designs and textiles.

The Long Cloth Tiga Negeri is one of eight pieces on loan from Indonesian Daniel Tendean, 48, an investment counsellor at a bank in Singapore.

It is a made-to-order piece from Indonesia's well-known Tjoa family workshop, run by Peranakan Chinese batik entrepreneurs over three generations.

The piece has a Dutch floral pattern called buketan - which originated from the word "bouquet" - that contains Chinese, Javanese and Dutch elements.

Mr Tendean said his interest in batik can be traced back to when he learnt from a neighbour in Indonesia how to play traditional gamelan musical instruments. "I realised that I needed to learn more about my home culture," he said.

Examples of kain panjang pagi-sore, or day-and-night long cloth, will also be on display, showing how local residents embraced batik as the fashion of the region in the 1930s. Pagi-sore, meaning day and night, is a batik layout format invented in the 1930s in Indonesia that showcases two distinctive patterns on one batik cloth.

Made in the bustling trading and fishing towns along the north coast of Java, these cloths were popular among the merchants of the 1930s.

Batik has kept its place in contemporary fashion, as it features in the clothes designed and replicated by local designers, or shirts worn by South-east Asian leaders, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, at regional and global meetings.

Mr Kennie Ting, director of ACM and Peranakan Museum, said: "I hope that the exhibition encourages more of us here in Singapore to dress in this iconic, innovative and exhilarating form of dress that is so much a part of who we are as South-east Asians."

Admission charges for the exhibition will be $12 for Singaporeans and permanent residents, and $25 for tourists and foreign residents. Visit www.acm.org.sg for more information on opening hours and activities held in conjunction with the exhibition.

Correction note: This article has been edited for clarity.