78

Khaja Batik

Historically, Batik celebrates different stages of one’s life: a warm wrap welcoming a newborn, a ceremonial costume, as a complementary component of the kebaya dress, a daily staple of the commoners and a companion to the body once the soul departs. The versatility of Batik expands its usage as decor, murals, wall hangings, furnishing fabrics and scarves.

Today, our globalised culture has influenced our preference away from traditional Batik garments as a personal identifier. How can we make Batik relevant to the taste of the consumers of today? The answer: Innovation. Lately, there have been many efforts to revive batik motifs by incorporating modern touches to the highly developed art form.

These days,millennials have ditch high end brands and started to buy clothes from thrift shops to achieve the authentic style. Besides being eco-friendly, millennials focused more on individual expression and trying to not look basic. Therefore,fashion trends that were once buried like batik are all being explored again by the young generations.

The intricate batik patterns are traditionally derived from flowers, animals and pure geometric configurations. As an architecture student who is currently studying geometric patterns, I have found that geometric patterns infused with architecture elements can create a modern, unconventional batik motif. Such an unconventional method is deriving the motif from our most unifying and celebrated heritage: food.

The Malaysian culinary heritage includes a traditional Indian dessert called khaja - deep-fried layered dough served with clear sugar syrup. Visually, the layers create interesting repetitive lines that flourish into a complex configuration pattern sequence; akin to the visuals of khaja being stacked together in a large bowl.

The design process involved hand-drawing and hand-painting a realistic depiction of khaja in a yellow bowl with a red background. In Indian tradition, red symbolise purity. A portion of the subject drawing that consists of complex lines was selected as a motif. These motifs are then developed into a pattern, which involves several processes of manipulation and morphology.

The intricate lines are then simplified into primary geometrical shapes, which turned out to be ovals in different sizes and directions. The unit is then mirrored and repeated, creating a seamless rhythm in the final configuration. Centralised organisation can be observed from the pattern as the dominant four-petal formation at the centre, with the ovals as the secondary formation surrounding it.

Three bold colours - black, yellow and red - were inspired by the cubism art movement that often simplified the colours and tended to be nearly monochromatic; and primarily meant to not distract the viewer from the structure of form itself. As a neutral hue, black is used to balance the intense, warm colours.

Millennial trend is mostly simplicity and minimalism. Therefore, the simplified geometry and limited colours can relate better with millennial tastes. Furthermore, the lively, vivid colours give the pattern a more exciting, youthful look. Such interpretation further expands the versatility of Batik in both function and aesthetic. Expectantly educating the younger generations in appreciating local heritage.