Entering Someone Else's Life
Postscript: Mr. Peri the Batik Expert
I had the opportunity to visit the homes of some of the participating children during the workshop. Pajaran, the town where the Alam Batik Center located, was not all that large or prosperous, but the villages where they lived had to be reached along winding country roads. There were no fences separating one house from the next; chickens roamed freely through the neighborhood, goats were enclosed in pens, and seemingly every home had a bird cage on its eaves. Some communities were country villages without any public transportation at all, offering no way out unless someone offered a ride on their motorbike. As soon as we arrived, the villagers raced out to look at us. Once, while I was sitting in the living room talking to the children and their parents, a gentleman who looked like a neighbor offered some mangoes he'd picked from a tree. The villagers also pooled their money to buy us drinks. The “living rooms” were really just a carpet on the ground; there wasn't even proper furniture, let alone TV sets. Even the carpets might have been borrowed from a nearby mosque, Bu Ifa explained. Yet as poor as the people were, they never let it darken their faces. One student said they had quit school, but planned to study batik intently in order to earn money. These were children I never would have met had it not been for the workshop. It afforded me a different kind of experience from any exhibition. But I also had to be constantly vigilant. The week we spent together might be a good experience and memory for us -- but for some, it might be a matter of survival.
Mr. Fery was a student of Bu Ifa's. Four years before, he had come to Pajaran to open the Alam Batik Center with five batik experts and teach the craft to mothers in the nearby village. Every time they received an order, they would distribute material to the village housewives. Most of the stay-at-home mothers in Indonesia work mainly in the home. Part of this may have to do with religion, but another factor is the lack of opportunities for women who grew up in poor homes without a proper education. Mr. Peri offered work to these women, helping them gain at least a little extra income. Not only that, but he also promote the growing of plants to provide the villagers with batik material. One approach was to plant mango trees, allowing villagers to eat or sell the fruit and gather the unused leaves to sell to the Alam Batik Center for materials. This, too, was intended to offer a small supplement to their livelihoods. Most of the materials used by the center come from the village. Mr. Fery said he hoped studying batik would help improve the struggling children's lives. Of course, batik was not simply a means of making money to him. He viewed it, he said, as being like a religious act, something very spiritual. Indeed, whenever he received a batik order, he would dress up nicely and stop meeting with others for a while so that he could focus on the client's wishes or story. Anachronistic as it may seem in an utterly capital-dominated world like today's, I also found myself looking at his mild, happy face and thinking that might just be what that kind of world needs most.
As I mentioned before, entering someone's life is something that requires great care. But meetings are always exciting, especially in the way some of them bring great happiness to both parties. That's how our brief week together went. No rain fell early that morning on the day we left our lodgings. It was sad for us to go home, but we were able to do it with a smile knowing the ten children we had met in Pajaran would soon be coming to Korea in February. I can't help wondering how the sunny, nose-nipping winter will feel to them.
©노기훈 Noh Gihun
©노기훈 Noh Gihun
Until We Meet Again
Related Materials Booklet from the ‘Playground in Island: Batik Story’ Workshop https://issuu.com/totalmuseum/docs/batiker2015 Video of ‘Playground in Island 2015: Batik Story’ https://vimeo.com/153465196
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The Pyeonchang Cultural Olympics Art Dream Camp is a culture and art education program aimed at encouraging interest in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics among children and teenagers in Southern Hemisphere countries where winters are not cold. Starting in Vietnam on Saturday, November 5, 2016, Korean artists visited countries without winter sports to offer art education to local children, teenagers, and residents. Professional artists in various areas visited the four countries of Vietnam, Colombia, Malawi, and Indonesia offering programs in puppeteering, modern dance, music, visual arts, and crafts. Local participants are also being invited to Pyeongchang in February 2017 for an arts education project that will assemble the results of teaching in the four countries into one work back in Korea.