Sejauh Mata Memandang by Chitra Subyakto
Sejauh Mata Memandang is inspired by the little things that make us love Indonesia. We work with our master artisan friends in Sumba, Bali and Java where our textiles are made with age old technique one at a time and each pattern has a story created by unique human beings with love for you to wear and share. Each piece of fabric can be playfully played into a scarf and vice versa. Light, warm, timeless, wearable felt tip fabrics.
The products are batik cloth, or as she likes to call it in Indonesian word ‘kain’, and clothes made of the kain. Interesting patterns, in a sense that they’re simple and modern-ish. The clothes are also with simple cutting, worn by itself or combined with other modern pieces of clothes, pants and accessories. Navy blue and white dominate the color scheme, making it look more elegant and cool, as I am basically a fan of the cool colors aside to red.
Chitra also ‘inherited’ her love for traditional kain from her parents. “As the youngest kid, I was always tagging along wherever my Mom went, including going to check out for kain. I would get bored, predictably, but as I got older I appreciate it more and more,” she said. Family activity also meant going to art exhibitions and discussed about the artworks. With an art and culture-loving family like that, she didn’t really need art education to develop her artistic sense. But it was Edward Hutabarat’s Part One works, in which this Indonesian designer turned batik into casual daily wear, that opened her eyes about batik’s versatility. Even without having to be sewn into clothes, Chitra can turn batik cloth into stylish daily wear.
“People asked me where I got my inspiration to create things. It’s really easy, you can get it from anywhere, anything,” she said while flapping the menu card as a fan in the hot Jakarta afternoon because the air conditioner was off due to power cut. “For example, the algae series of Sejauh. I got the idea from the sea, when I looked down from the airplane. It looked so clear from up there, but not so much when you look at it from the boat.” She also got creative with the fishermen on boats pattern. “I love the beach. I don’t like swimming in the ocean much, but I love being on a beach. I would look at the fishermen and their boats, and.. it became a pattern, only I drew it from top view.” And it has become my personal favorite from Sejauh by far.
Why batik? We couldn’t not ask Chitra that. The obvious answer was that she has been familiar with batik all her life. “I also wanted the young generation to like batik and to understand that batik is actually a technique, not a pattern or motif. [And to show that] batik can have a simple and modern pattern,” she said in her soft but determined voice.
Chitra looked far and wide and carefully for batik crafters that could help her realize her ideas, mainly in Central and East Java. After a year looking, finally a few younger crafters signed up for the job. “Batik crafters are artists too. Whatever design I make becomes a whole new enhanced design in their hands. A lot of them were confused with my design because they weren’t used to simple motifs. This kind of collaboration makes a richer design.”
Source: http://sejauh.com