‘A name, a function and a philosophy’: The art of Indonesian batik

The city of Solo is the centre of the country’s batik industry and is changing to keep up with the times.

Solo, Indonesia – Gunawan Setiawan is the fourth generation of batik makers and sellers in his family, and hails from the historic royal city of Surakarta, or Solo, in Central Java which is also known as the batik capital of Indonesia.

“Batik is a special art from Indonesia, and especially Java, which is made with wax and dye,” Setiawan said. “Originally, sticky rice was used as a way of carving out the designs and making them resistant to the coloured dye, before wax was chosen as a more effective replacement.”

While the exact origins of the technique are difficult to determine, batik is thought to date back to ancient times when people wrapped cloth around themselves as clothing and started to dye it different colours and decorate it with motifs, Setiawan said.

Batik is thought to have originated in Indonesia but similar techniques are also found in Egypt, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India and parts of China.

“The colours of Solo’s batik reflect the environment and in Java, we are surrounded by trees and leaves. Each part of Indonesia has its own colours and in Solo, they are brown, beige and gold,” Setiawan said.