KIM-LING MORRIS
  • HOME
  • CURRENT PROJECTS
  • Store
  • About
  • Blog

Scars and stars

12/12/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
I'm stitching patches into my father's batik shirt that my husband now wears. My father would have been thrilled!
The fabric has become so delicate that it feels like moleskin. I choose another Indonesian cloth for the patches. These are offcuts from a skirt that was bought at the same shop called Ibu Bintang Negara. Located down a track in old Jakarta, the smell of wax and dyes would meet you before the colours and patterns. My father spoke bahasa, the main Indonesian language, and he would translate for my sister and me.
"These are the pattern blocks that they use," he explained, pointing to a library of intricately carved wooden blocks that were dark and slightly sticky with years of immersion into melted wax. "This form symbolises the orchid, this the garuda."
I think of the warmth of where this shirt was made. Each crease, as witnessed by the dyeing process, tells of the person who placed the wax and crumpled the cloth into hot dye; who rinsed it and laid it out to dry on the bristly lawn; the person who cut the cloth and stitched it and ironed it, the conversation between my father and this family of batik workers, all under the flickering fluorescent lights and slow-turning fans of Ibu Bintang Negara.
As I stitch, the cloth thickens like a scar. I am no match for the Negaras. Along the edges of my patches, new holes appear with the transfer of tension and I go back to my jar of cloth scraps. I'm not annoyed. It means I can spend more time holding, remembering, fixing.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    creating tales of things and other places

    Archives

    October 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    August 2017
    June 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    July 2014

    Categories

    All
    Anatomy Of The Perfectly Dispensible
    Art
    Artwork
    Clouds
    Cork
    Cork City
    Drawing
    Exhibition
    Inspiration
    Ireland
    Olde Wolbers
    Pen
    Photograph
    Print
    Sample Studios
    Sample-Studios
    St Finbarre
    Studio
    Textile
    Whitechapel Gallery

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • HOME
  • CURRENT PROJECTS
  • Store
  • About
  • Blog