Batik Sarong with Roosters and Vegetal Motif

Label

Red roosters and vegetation outlined in yellow crowd this blue cloth. This sarong is a tube-shaped textile sewn by women to wear around their hips.

Artisans create batik through a resist dyeing method using wax. They first wash and beat the cloth with a mallet to remove the starches, soften the cloth, and prepare it for dyeing. The artisans then draw, or block print the designs onto the cloth with wax and dye it. The areas of cloth treated with wax retain their original color and the process is repeated multiple times, resulting in elaborate and lively patterns.

Look carefully at the designs of the roosters and the plants and take note of the case with the tools used for batik. What tool, the cap or the canting, would have been used to make this batik?

From the 2023 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 115, Connecting Threads and Woven Stories, curated by Caitlyn King '24, Class of 1954 Intern

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue 115, Connecting Threads and Woven Stores, Caitlyn King '24, Class of 1954 Intern, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 21 - December 16, 2023.

Provenance

Collected by Semarang Hijmans, Java, late 19th early-20th century; given to her granddaughter, Dr. Jacqueline C. Harris, Durham, North Carolina; given to present collection, 2009.

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