The Art of Patterns - BATIK

Batik is a cloth that is orginated from Indoensia, traditionally made using a wax-resist dyeing technique. It is made out of patterns that are fully drawn and covered all of them cloth’s surface. Javanese traditional Batik has some important meanings behind every patterns rooted to the conceptualization of the universe. 

Generally traditional Batik colours include indigo, brown, and white which symbolized the three major Hindu Gods. Other regions in Indonesia have their own special patterns that generally take themes from dail life. The famous one includes a pattern consist of flowers, nature, animals, and/ folklore.

"Canting"

An old lady using "canting" to make patterns of Batik manually

On October 2, 2009, UNESCO nominated Batik as a “Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” and as a part of the acknowledgement, UNESCO insisted that Indonesia preserve their heritage. 

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A/W 2013 TREND ALERT!

Last season's monochrome prints has turned to softer, colour-drenched checks for this year's Autumn/Winter collection thoughout the world of fashion. Spotted on the runways are bright-coloured blanket-like weaves that gives out the feeling of comfiness and warmth, while fur and silk bring plaid to the next level party. For this season, never be afraid for pairing plaid with plaid! Lanvin and Dolce & Gabanna are just a couple names that present top-to-te looks full of plaids. It is said that the plaid looks are fully inspired by the punk and grunge rock and roll feels from the 90s, from the era of Nirvana and Pearl Jam. 

Celine's woven laundry-bag squares are one of the season's most decisive prints - featured on the August 2013 cover of Vogue, modelled by Freja Beha.

Celine A/W 13

Celine's plaid bag feautured on VOGUE 

Plaids everywhere as seen on the runways from various brands and designers

Punk Grunge Band and plaid top since 1990s

 Nirvana

The Pearl Jam

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Ancient Greece

The way ancient Greek dressed up were very simple, with chiton, peplos, himation, and chlamys as the main "ingredients". The clothes on that era were mostly handmade which can also be used as bedding and more. Despite popular imagination and media depictions of all-white clothing, elaborate design and bright colors were favored.

Anyway, what are Chiton, Peplos, Himation, and Chlamys? They are the main clothes fabrics that were used for ancient Greece dresses and clothings. Clothes were usually clamped with ornamental pins and belt tied around the waist to secure the fabrics.

For the inner part of the clothing, Greek used Chiton or Peplos. Peplos were mostly used by women for their dresses because they were mostly heavier compared to Chiton that was used mostly for the men's clothing. Men's chitons hung to the knees, whereas women's chitons fell to their ankles.

Example of Chiton

Chlamys is a seamless woolen fabric worn by men as cloak. It was as big as a blanket, somtimes worn by the soldiers at that era as the shield during the war.

Chlamys 

Himation is a basic outer garment used for winter clothings on the ancient Greece era. It was worn over the peplos or the cloak.

Himation

The Art of Ambiguity

Ambiguous - the art of explaining two things at the same time, causing some sort of optical illusion and ambiguity to whoever see the artworks. In visual art, certain images are visually ambiguous. Take this picture below as an example...

What do you see from the picture:

Face of a rabbit? Or a duck?

What do you see:

A human face or tree and landscape?

Pictures or photographs may also be ambiguous. The visual image might not be ambiguous, but the meaning and narrative may be ambiguous: is a certain facial expression one of excitement or fear, for example.

Take a look at the photo above;

Does he feel excited or afraid?

"I do not believe that art should be explicit. It should be suggestive and ambiguous so that the viewer has to enter in." - Balcomb Greene

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MADE IN SINGAPORE - Moon and Sun

Made In Singapore - an exhibition heldon August 29 until September 7 2013, took place in NAFA Galleries 1 & 2 and also at Lim Hak Tai Gallery in order to celebrate 75 years of arts education in Singapore. There are a lot of scluptures, paintings, and designs shown during the exhibition but the one that really caught my eyes is a pair of lollipop-shaped objects hung on a side of the wall. 

Gekko & Nikko - that's how it is called. Meaning that one of them actually potrays the Moon (Gekko) and the one beside him is Nikko, the Sun. As written on the explanation of the design, Gekko & Nikko are a pair of art objects thta as neo-artefacts inspire the sense of ethereal in the tradition of historical art objects.

Gekko & Nikko

The designer herself, Ang Soo Koon, admits that she loves to try experimenting with all type of different medias, including print, photography, drawing, installation, and film. She created Gekko & Nikko on 2006, consisted of mixed media in size of 60 x 60 x 180cm.

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R O C O C O

In the beginning of 18th century, the new fashion was introduced to France and the world caused by the sphere of influence for art and culture from Versailles to Paris. It was first introduced by Louis XV and his mistress Madame Pompadour. The rococo fashion itself were focusing on pastel colours which potrays happiness and joyous feelin, sometimes mixed with floral patterns and light stripes. During the rococo era, a new silhouette for woman was developed. They focused on wide hoops which was worn under the skirt that extended sideways, also tightly constricted with corsets. Sometimes the dresses were also decorated with laces and ribbons depend on the events or balls.

Madame Pompadour and her Rococo dresses

During the rococo era, men generally wore different variations of coats and waistcoats. They were usually embroidered and patterned. Jabots lace were still worn around the neck as an accesories, completed with white stockings worn underneath and heeled shoes which usually supported with large square buckles. The coats on that era is not very skirt-like as we saw during the Baroque era. 

Men's outfits during Rococo era

Lace jabots

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A Restless Estranged Soul

Found myself all alone on Bugis with nowhere to go and no one to talk to. Yes, I am that pathetic. But whatever. Life is life and we can't always depend on or distress somebody, whoever he/she is I believe. Sometimes I wonder how does it feels to have someone who you could rely on every single time and understand me, more like a twinsister or doppelgänger or (uhm) boyfriend. Yes, it might be annoying for some times when you need a time alone but still, it's better to have someone accompanying you at any situations than no one at all.

"A bowl for two one"

"And now that I am alone, all I have is emptiness that comes from being free"

YES, I am green with envy. Seriously, look at this sweet couple 

right in front of me while I am walking all alone with no where to go

I don't know whether it is just me or being alone (with no accompanion of family) in Singapore can make you go nuts and feel somehow trapped, especially on Saturday night with nothing to do. Being all alone is not a really good feeling, seriously. Monday to Friday are full of assignments and homeworks, makes you feel tired and restless. But when it comes to weekend, I realized that I actually need something to work on! Humans can never be satisfied huh? I feel like I always complain and complain about the stuffs I have to do on weekdays but then I complain again about how "devoid" a weekend could be. I have just stayed in Singapore for a month and got nowhere to go already. WHY OH WHY. I really need to search for places to hangout or at least that provides "activities" to do (especially the one that includes "eating" on them). Anyway, I'm making a illustration for this post, sorry if it isn't that good but oh well, I've tried my best.