Get insights into craft and batik in Batik Nyonyas: Three Generations Of Art And Entrepreneurship at the Peranakan Museum. Batik Nyonyas: Three Generations Of Art And Entrepreneurship Craft can and should be considered high art and this show at the Peranakan Museum is a good argument in favour of this statement. Batik Nyonyas showcases the works of three generations of batik-makers from a Peranakan family in Indonesia: Nonya Oeij Soen King (1871 to 1950), Nonya Oeij Kok Sing (1895 to 1966) and Jane Hendromartono (1924 to 1988).
While the show is centred on these three women, there is an effort to contextualise their work and explain what sets them apart from other batik-makers. Oeij Soen King’s pieces are displayed against other renowned batik-makers such as Eliza van Zuylen, the most successful Eurasian batik maker in Pekalongan. While the family ran their business from their home, it is no exaggeration to say their batik pieces are couture creations, painstakingly hand-drawn and made exclusively for wealthy clients.
Try your hand at tracing one of the batik motifs at an activity station and you will gain a new appreciation of the skill needed to pack multiple small motifs onto a piece of fabric with a hot canting, the tool for applying wax for the dye resistance process. The works are evidence of the vibrant cultural exchanges that happened, and are still happening, in this part of the world. A sarong (1900s to 1920s) by Lien Metzelaar depicts the Snow White story with ch.