The next day, we woke up early and refreshed after the long journey to come to Nanga Sumpa. The people we stayed with are the indigenous people of Iban. They showed us the process of weaving and ceramics, using the traditional ways. The ceramics demonstration was done by Pak Cik Andah. Fortunately, I was able to converse with him using a mix of Indonesian/Malay language. In his younger days, Pak Cik Andah worked on ships, travelling the world and as a wood cutter in the Indonesian forsts. When he was 25, he returned home and started learning pottery from his grandmother. Pottery making was something that was usually done by women, to create pots to cook with. The craft form was slowly disappearing as the Iban people had access to cities where they can just buy cooking pots. Pak Cik Andah explained that in the first few years of learning, it was all trials and errors until he finally found the techniques and grew his skills. He mines his clay (earthenware) from two places - one place was about 25 minutes from the village and another one about a day's trip away (where he treks over places with river water up to his chest). Only local Iban villagers are allowed to mine the clay and the clay is not sold to outsiders to preserve the craft. Once the pots have been created, they are fired in a woodfire. Then while the pots are still hot, they are dipped in a solution of water and samak tree bark. This creates a natural glaze. The pots are still porous so if you store water in it, the water will slowly evaporate. Pak Cik Andah took some of us to the samak tree, where he gets the tree bark. The samak tree was only 5 minutes away for the village, but it was located on top of a steep hill. I had some issues going up, especially with the bruises from my fall the other day (we trekked through the rainforest to see the clay source, the bridge I was on collapsed, luckily it wasn't such a big fall). Pak Cik Andah explained that there was another samak tree he used to go to, but it is dead now because he had stripped off most of the bark. There weren't that many samak trees left around the village. Everytime he visited the tree, he would take about 1kg of bark, which would be enough to coat 20-25 pots. To continue the art form, Pak Cik Andah trained someone but that person soon lost interest. He hopes his granddaughter, who was studying ceramics near Kuala Lumpur, will return home and continue the tradition.
We left Nanga Sumpa village and the lovely Iban people the next day, returning to Kuching. All content written are my personal views. All images are owned by me.
1 Comment
On the second day of the course, we travelled to Batang Ai, specifically to the Nanga Sumpa village. In addition to the 20 students from COFA, we were joined by UNIMAS students. We travelled on a bus to a pier, where we then took a 1.5 hr boat ride. The boat ride was both exhilarating and totally freaked me out since I can't swim. The views were amazeballs! We were separated into different accommodations as we arrived at Nanga Sumpa. All the ladies slept at the Village Chief's house, while the men slept in the longhouse. The lecturers slept in the Nanga Sumpa lodge. We slept on mattresses on the floor, with mosquito nets. All content written are my personal views. All images are owned by me.
In June 2012, I travelled to Kuching, Malaysia, as part of an intensive studio research collaboration course offered by College of Fine Arts (COFA) called Syntropy Sarawak. The two week intensive design studio was held at the University of Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Faculty of Applied and Creative Arts, in conjunction with the Contemporary Songket Weaving Centre, Kuching, the Sirim Ceramic Incubator, and the Indigenous ceramic craft centre, Batang Air. Places in the course were limited to 20 students and the selection process was quite competitive. I was thrilled to have been selected! All COFA students stayed within the UNIMAS campus, at the International Student Hostel Alamanda College. Since we arrived during the semester break, the campus was almost empty, except for those who decided to stay in town. As this was an intensive course, we started the week with visiting three places: the UNIMAS Faculty of Applied and Creative Arts facilities, the Contemporary Songket Weaving Workshop (Tanoti Sdn. Bhd.) and the SIRIM Sdn. Bhd. and Malaysian Handicraft Development Cooperation, Sarawak Branch. Tanoti Sdn. Bhd. - Contemporary Songket Weaving Workshop (25/6/2012) Tanoti Sdn Bhd is a congregation of Sarawakian women weavers and artisans dedicated towards the production, promotion and proliferation of hand-crafted fabrics. This continuously-growing community of craftswomen had its origins in a research and development workshop set up by a foundation established by Her Royal Highness the Queen of Malaysia in 2008, the Yayasan Tuanku Nur Zahirah. The workshop was privatised in 2012 pursuant to a restructuring exercise undertaken by the foundation. Tanoti aims to make good the vision of the foundation, that is to improve lives and livelihoods of womenfolk and rural communities through the ancient art of songket weaving. Source: http://tanoticrafts.com/?page_id=5 This was actually the very fist time I have ever been in a weaving workshop! It was an eye-opener as to how much effort goes into the making of Songket fabric. Dr June Ngo, at that time Senior Lecturer and Deputy Dean (Postgraduate and Research) of the Faculty of Applied and Creative Arts, UNIMAS, explained to us that Songket is a traditional Malay fabric woven in silk/cotton/metalic threads to for Songket motifs. Songket can be expensive to produce due to the lengthy processes and also the materials used. The process of Songket weaving is ardurous, wiht complication calculations required for the weaving. To give context, Dr Ngo explained that an experienced weaver can produce only up to 2 inches of Songket fabric in one day. There are some challenges. The Songket fabric is limited in its use. There is also competition with mass produced Songket which are cheaper and faster to make. Retaining the workforce for Songket weaving is also a problem as the initial learning process can take years to master. Tanoti is giving the craft a new zest of life by making Songket more available to the wider market. Tanoti has branched out to make products such as handbags, cushion covers, tableware and wall panels from songket. In addition, simpler weaving designs are implement to make the songket textile more affordable. Another thing I learned is a new type of fabric = Songtik. Songtik is a combination of Songket and Batik. The process of Songtik is to first create the Batik on warped thread and then the Songket designs are applied. How clever is that! All content written are my personal views. All images are owned by me.
Uni semester has ended, and so officially, I have completed all the courses for the Master of Design degree. I had my final presentation last week on Tuesday night. That day we had terrible weather, gale force winds and rains. I had so much stuff to take with me that I bought a trolley. This was how much I had to take:
This is what they look like all packed up. The presentation was at the UNSW main campus in Kensington. In consideration that I would not have been able to carry all the above by myself, on the bus - plus knowing the weather was s.h.i.t, I drove to work. Work's fantastic, they gave me free parking (we're in the city, it would have cost me heaps to park) and my Manager told me I can leave early before it started to rain.
At the UNSW campus, I had to park on the roof level of the parking building. It was starting to rain and because I didn't want my stuff to get too wet (I covered them with plastic sheets after I took the photo above), I decided to risk parking in the lower level, drop off my stuff, park on the roof level and then quickly run down to get them. Oh and have I mentioned that there is no freaking LIFT in the building? So I slowly wheeled my trolley down the 6 levels, totally looking like a sad, wet bag lady. On the way to the classroom, I met an ex-colleague and saw a big tree branch fall on him, lucky he's alright. And as I waited for class to start, sheets of metal flew off the roofs and came thundering down. On the presentation itself, I was feeling a bit out of place as I saw my other classmates walking in with just a laptop bag. I texted my husband and told him that I may have done too much. I displayed all of my wares on one of the benches. I should have taken a picture but by that time I was just so tired and wanted to go home. I was first to present, 7 minutes long. I honestly cannot remember much of what I said, I rambled. The presentation caught me off guard because in the previous years, students only needed to display their work and then leave the classroom for 2 hours while the teacher goes around marking. I"m glad that part of my education is now finished. I'm really looking forward to the trip to Sarawak, I can't believe I'm leaving in one week! Here are a couple of pictures from my presentation. Mini mortar and pestles and also the ladies (Mbok Jamu). The ladies will be part of the exhibition I'm doing in July - ROOTS at Gaffa Gallery - from 26 July-7 August 2012. Come see it! |
Irine is a recipient of the Australia Council for the Arts' Artstart Grant (June 2014-2015).
This website has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body. Categories
All
Past postings
March 2016
|