Indonesian kriya today
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BORIS DOI
Subtitle
Yogyakarta batik and ceramics – reflecting and negotiating cultural identities
Abstract
In Java (Indonesia), the Sultanate of Yogyakarta has remained a special autonomous region and is known as a centre for Javanese culture and arts. This sultanate had a rich court culture, in which applied arts like batik were preserved and developed. For a long time, these arts were particularly protected and promoted in the palace, making Yogyakarta a magnet for Indonesian artists and craftspeople. Unsurprisingly, the first Art Academy (1950) and the first Art University (1984) were established in Yogyakarta. In the 1960’s artists and lecturers from Yogyakarta’s Art Academy introduced the term kriya, which means skilfulness, and served as a starting point to revitalise Javanese cultural values and art practices. Kriya describes two things: (1) a material culture of the past and present and (2) a philosophy, that guides artistic practices and the creation of artworks. Therefore, the term kriya encompasses more than the word “craft” and cannot be translated as such.
In this dissertation two Yogyakarta forms of applied arts are examined to shed light on the understanding of kriya: first, Javanese batik, a textile reserve technique, attributed to Indonesia in 2009 on UNESCO’s representative list of intangible cultural heritages; second, ceramics, practised in a traditional pottery village, called Kasongan (part of Yogyakarta) and in ceramists’ individual contemporary studios.
Batik has a rich cultural heritage and has evolved in style and pattern in the past decades. It has found its way into fashion linking the past with the present. Indonesian ceramic art is interesting, because it has become popular in recent decades (since the 1960s), and shows Indonesia’s orientation towards Western exhibition practices (biennials). Numerous curatorial texts and essays on ceramics prove that Indonesian art critics and curators consider ceramics to be particularly suitable and interesting for discussing Indonesian art and the role of kriya.
Kriya is often translated as craft, which is imprecise, because it encompasses many things: material cultures of the Archipelago, and technical and philosophical aspects of art practices. Therefore, I propose to include the term kriya in our art vocabulary to better describe Indonesian art history. I do not aim to establish a counter-concept to art in the West, but I suggest the coexistence of divergent concepts of art.
In this dissertation two Yogyakarta forms of applied arts are examined to shed light on the understanding of kriya: first, Javanese batik, a textile reserve technique, attributed to Indonesia in 2009 on UNESCO’s representative list of intangible cultural heritages; second, ceramics, practised in a traditional pottery village, called Kasongan (part of Yogyakarta) and in ceramists’ individual contemporary studios.
Batik has a rich cultural heritage and has evolved in style and pattern in the past decades. It has found its way into fashion linking the past with the present. Indonesian ceramic art is interesting, because it has become popular in recent decades (since the 1960s), and shows Indonesia’s orientation towards Western exhibition practices (biennials). Numerous curatorial texts and essays on ceramics prove that Indonesian art critics and curators consider ceramics to be particularly suitable and interesting for discussing Indonesian art and the role of kriya.
Kriya is often translated as craft, which is imprecise, because it encompasses many things: material cultures of the Archipelago, and technical and philosophical aspects of art practices. Therefore, I propose to include the term kriya in our art vocabulary to better describe Indonesian art history. I do not aim to establish a counter-concept to art in the West, but I suggest the coexistence of divergent concepts of art.
Date of Publication
2024
Year of graduation
2023
Theses Type
dissertation
Subject(s)
Language(s)
en
Author(s)
Rüegg, Marlies-Aryani |
Faculty/Graduate School
Institute
Access(Rights)
open.access
Primary OA Publication
true