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BRAHMA TIRTA SARI STUDIO * Crossing both visible and invisible boundaries of nationality-race, the traditional, the contemporary, art-craft, Agus Ismoyo (Indonesian) and Nia Fliam (American) have been working collaboratively to produce contemporary textiles in their fine art batik studio, Brahma Tirta Sari in Yogyakarta Indonesia since 1985. Through this artistic collaboration, they have been exploring the rich traditional root of the ancient batik textile tradition. |
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* Regarding their own work, Ismoyo and Nia explain: "Our world culture is, in fact, one and has arisen from the strength of 'budi' or human intelligence and the spirit of humankind motivates this intelligence. This spirit is the oneness or unity we speak of. In any creative work, an awareness of our position within its framework is of utmost importance. With this in mind, it is our commitment in our creative work to devote ourselves to the work of this spirit in exploring aspects of the heritage of our world culture and its role in the shaping of contemporary culture."
* Extending the scope of their work, in September 1999, Ismoyo and Nia presented new collaborative works for the Third Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane, Australia, which were created together with eight Aboriginal batik artist from the Australian Central Desert community of Utopia.These works are titled: "Songs of Peace, Songs of the Ancestors, Batik from the Land."Regarding this work, Indonesian independent curator and writer Jim Supangkat wrote in the cataglogue "Beyond the Future":"Certainly, their work which makes use of batik techniques has been produced within the framework of tradition, but what is meant here by 'tradition' requires further explanation. [For Ismoyo and Nia]...The tradition underpinning these collaborative works is more than just a means by which collectivity is reflected through artistic arrangement. It also encompasses the collective unconscious, where individuality is not considered a pole that opposes collectivity, but the result of tensions between the collective unconscious and the ego as the center of consciousness. It is through tradition that the textile artists relate to the spiritual world, a place where they carry on a kind of dialogue with their ancestors and touch upon the baseline of tradition. According to Javanese cosmology, which forms the principles followed by the artists of the Brahma Tirta Sari Studio, existence as we know it consists of a three-tiered world known as 'Tribowono' (old Javanese for 'Three Realms'); here there is a microcosmos, or the world of consciousness of the ego or the self; a macrocosmos, or the world of consciousness where the dialogue between members of humanity occurs; and the World of Light, where the consciousness of the unseen world exists, and where the "Golden Cord' is found. This 'cord' connects humanity to the omnipotent and omnipresent creator. Tribowono is the spirit in the creative process.
It is the connecting process of feelings between the will and the mind and is that which gives birth to budi (human intelligence) that is manifested in a piece of work.... The artists' works mark a new direction in contemporary art - a new direction towards the presentation of cultural representations."
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* Background of the artists and their studio: Agung Harjuno, a cultural observer and writer living in Bali, writes ....
"Ismoyo's ancestors were batik makers in the court city of Solo in Java and his terteriary education was in Industrial Management.
While US born artist Nia originally explored dye resist techniques from Africa and Asia in America. She completed her fine arts degree at the Pratt Institute in New York City before coming to Indonesia in 1983 to study traditional batik.Ismoyo and Nia look to the roots of the Javanese batik tradition to continue its essence in a contemporary spirit. This search has involved thoroughly grounding themselves in the aesthetics of Javanese batik as well as an intensive, ongoing research into traditional Javanese Kejawen philosophy of which batik is the most profound visual expression. This has given birth to a form of batik art which is in their own style while maintaining a deep respect for that which has preceded them. They have never felt that they were borrowing from traditional motifs, but rather continuing and preserving the essence of the motifs themselves. According to them batik with all its manifold aspects is a living tradition. They have layer by layer been reaching for the essence of the creative process which has resulted in the sacred motifs based on the philosophy "kapti kerdating sukma" ("work that has been created by a vibration from the soul"). They approach their work by holding as their ideal the way of the 'empu' batik maker (a Javanese term for a master who has excellent technical skills, deep philosophical grounding and expert skills in meditative practice) would have approached the creation of sacred motifs.As the present situation is different from the time sacred motifs were created many centuries ago, they feel the motifs need not take the same form. This is the way Ismoyo and Nia attempt to preserve the tradition of batik. They are not tied to a physical form, but attempt to find the spirit of each of the sacred motifs.
Sometime ago in their attempt to understand these traditional motifs, they realized they must find a process that is not just about individual creativity but a collaborative process. They create their fine art pieces and produce their commercial cloth with the help of more than 25 other members of their studio. While having mastered the conventional technique of batik, they are at this time working with forms of 'cap'(copper stamps used to apply the wax) and hand batik in the same way that a painter uses his brush on a canvas. They do not feel in anyway as though they are limited by the nature of the technique of batik. An intimacy with a process like this has grown in a natural way without any pretense or feeling of using just what is available. But rather, they feel their batik is like a starting point for exploring a technique. They are completely open to all possibilities, like archeologists who are digging and discover a small stupa which ultimately they find to be a monumental temple, which is still buried." (Bali, 1996).
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