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THE BATIK MOTIF Alfi Syahrin1 Collaboration Between University of Padjadjaran, Indonesia and University of La Rochelle, France. ABSTRACT Batik is traditional fabric which has motif. The motif is pattern of graphic contains elements and meaning. Generally people might know batik well, but they need t...

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The Batik Motif Alfi Syahrin

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THE BATIK MOTIF Alfi Syahrin1 Collaboration Between University of Padjadjaran, Indonesia and University of La Rochelle, France.

ABSTRACT Batik is traditional fabric which has motif. The motif is pattern of graphic contains elements and meaning. Generally people might know batik well, but they need to be explained more about the understanding of batik motif. Motif is different in every region. The difference caused by many things, such as condition of geographical location. Other factors influence are religion, tradition, social rule, style of life, local environment, etc. The different pattern, elements and meaning happened in every time and every region. They also evolves according to time and region. Based on previous researches, tried to identify the pattern, elements and meaning of the batik motif. The results stated that the classical batik has geometric and non-geometric patterns in general. The elements contained from motif are main and additional ornaments, and isen-isen (small ornaments in and between large and small ornaments). The meaning based on philosophy and functional value. Motif also called pakem, that is, the way the motifs are organized. The items form motif called ornament. Recently, some artist or designer used batik fractal with algorithm to innovate . Keywords: batik motif, classification, composition, functional value, understanding

INTRODUCTION People might know batik motif well, but they need the undertanding of the batik motif as well. Most the pattern, elements and meaning of the batik motif are different. The difference happened in every time and region caused by such as condition of geographical location, raw material, technology, etc. From social-cutural perspective, factors which influence are religion, tradition, social rule, style of life, and so forth. However, there are also factors which cause similarities on the motif, for example, anchestor, original geography, and others. United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) stated that Indonesian batik as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2009. According to UNESCO, batik is design of graphic on fabric using dots and lines of hot wax, which resist vegetable and other dyes, allow the artisan to color selectively by soaking the cloth in one color, then removing the wax from with boiling water, and repeating the process if they need multiple colors (the Jakarta Post cited from Embassy of Indonesia, 2015).

1 Doctoral student from Collaboration between University of Padjadjaran, Bandung, Indonesia and University of La Rochelle, France. The article written in Chicago, Illinois, USA. June 2015. Email: [email protected]

Based on above description, needs to let readers know about the pattern, element and meaning of the batik motif. Besides, no one of Indonesian writers especially describe more the understanding of the batik motif. Through this article, tried to describe it.

Purpose The article is aimed at explaining the understanding of batik motif. The purpose is to let readers know about the understanding of batik motif, and especially for local artist or designers could have a view about the motif . The objectives are to identify the pattern, elements and meaning of the batik motif.

Method The method used by reviewing the previous researches (relevant readings) of batik motifs and try to identify the pattern through category, elements through its composition and meaning of the motif through philosophy or functional value, and finally conclude the understanding of the batik motifs.

Relevant Readings

Batik Some Indonesian writers stated that batik is Indonesian traditional fabric because began before the era of Raden Wijaya, the first King of Majapahit, around from 1294 to 1309 (Putra, Suciati, and Wijaya, 2011). Batik is considered to be a textile art, the motif has character of visual art, evolves according to their place and time, has certain symbolic meaning, and in aesthetic side, the quality is not based on the judgment of being good or bad, but in its effort (Lukman, Hariadi, and Destiarmand, 2015). There are many kinds of style, especially in batik modern, and also they have many differences in terms of the way the motifs are organized or in Javanese called Pakem. The items which forms motifs are called ornaments (Moertini and Sitohang, 2005). Pakem could be geometrical and non-geometrical in shape. Besides, some motifs has philosophical meaning themselves (Doellah, 2002; Kerloug, 2004; Hamzuri, 1981 and Susanto, 1980 cited from Moertini and Sitohang, 2005). Nowdays, many classical motifs are still preserved. The classical batik patterns or motifs can be broken down into two parts: the main and additional ornaments, and isenisen or small ornaments used to fill the empty space in or between ornaments (Kerlogue, 2004; Doellah, 2002; Susanto, 1980 cited from Moertini, 2015).

Motif From cultural perspective, motif is cultural symbol, for example, motif of sirigu symbol (Asmah and Okpattah, 2013). Batik is not an ordinary textile art, inside there is a functional value (Lukman, Hariadi and Destiarmand, 2015). This value creates different batik motifs. For example the motifs between peasant and noble, coastal and interior, every day and ritual are not similar to represent the difference of each value.

Iwan Tirta said that as batik motifs or pakems have meaning, people could select certain motifs to match with their profile or to give certain impression when wearing the batik. Some examples of classical motifs, their philosophical meaning and impressions that the wearers give is shown on Table 1. Table 1 Some Examples of Batik Motif, Meaning and Impression Cited From Moertini & Sitohang (2005).

Some motifs sometimes are also designed for special occasions, such as wedding parties, engagement, funeral, child-birth ceremonies, dating (in order to attract others), for daily use, etc. Some examples of batik motifs are given on Figure 2.

Figure 1 Some Examples of Batik Motifs Cited From Moertini & Sitohang (2005).

Batik is also Malaysian-Indonesian traditional cloth design, with intrinsic artistic value and a rich and diverse history (Loke, 2015). The motifs are usually highly stylised abstract designs derived from nature or mythology. Texture can be described as patterns of “non-uniform spatial distribution” of pixel intensities, that is to say that, intensity patterns are varying across space. The batik individual patterns vary across the textile but maintaining the a similar theme.

Figure 2 Samples of Motif Textures From 4 Different Class Cited From Loke (2015).

Classifications of Motif Batik has a very special place in the world of textiles. In Indonesia, some motifs are classified as parang, geometry, banji, spreading plants, water plants, flowers and animal. Batik produced on the coastal areas, such as Pekalongan, Cirebon, Madura, etc., called batik pesisir, expresses more freedom and dynamical statement through the pakem, as opposed to the ones produced close to the court such as Yogyakarta, Solo, etc. Many kinds of batik style have been produced, such as batik kraton (batik come from the courts), batik sudagaran, batik Belanda, batik Cina, batik Djawa Hokokai, and batik Indonesia which also called batik modern. These types of batik differ in terms of their motifs, the way they are produced, color variety, coloring material, and cloth material. Traditional batiks from the courts of Java are also called classical batik. They are still largely being produced and their motifs are sometimes used in batik modern design (Moertini, 2015). The batik widely spread. According to Loke (2015), motif has pattern. For example, Oparinde (2012) describes that motif designs from Central Java can be grouped into four categories, they are garis, mitik, ceplok and semen. The batik designs, three are strong geometrics and the fourth is more organic (Boehlke, 2005 cited from Oparinde, 2012). The first is the garis miring of diagonally running designs such as parang rust (broken knife), the second is mitik consisting of small dots or scallops as filler in large designs; this pattern imitates the visual effect of woven cloth, and the third is ceplok which has grid-formed designs inspired by rosettes and

cross-sections of fruits, while the fourth is the semen category of styled flora and fauna motifs (Oparinde, 2012). The classical batik, based on the ornaments and their structures, can be classified into two major classes, which are geometry and non-geometry. Those two classes could be further divided into subclasses, which are banji, ganggong, ceplokan, etc. (See Table 2.)

Table 2 The Classification of Classical Batik Cited From Moertini (2015)

Other source stated, batik motif designs based on their shapes, also divided into two major groups, namely geometric and non-geometric.2 Classified under the geometric designs are diagonal or parang motif; such as squares, rectangle, crosses or ceplok and kawung; weaving or limar motifs, and the non-geometric designs: such as semen, lunglungan and buketanet.3

2 3

See Yuliati, Dewi, 2010. http://aberges.tripod.com/designs.htm

Parang Rusak Barong

Kawung Prabu

Figure 3 Geometric Motif Patterns: Parang Rusak Barong Motif & Kawung Prabu Motif From Yogyakarta Respectively. Below examples of non-geomatric motif patterns.4

Figure 4 Non-geometic Motifs. Top row from left to right: Peksi Dares, Imo Krenda and Kelengan. Bottom row from left to right: Jago Cirebonan, Semen Gurdho and Kapal Api.

Recently, Indonesia has a traditional painting motif which is applied to batik. The batik motif which experience change divided into two models, which are fractal and isen motifs. Fractal 4

https://gobatik.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/batik-non-geometric-motif/

batik is batik that has fractal motif, is a motif that based on rule that rised with transformation, and the result is batik motif. Isen-isen is used as the contains of motif. According to Falconer, fractal has five characteristics, which are soft structures, irregular shape, fractal dimensional has greater than its topology and recursive. Generally, fractal has integer dimension, such as line has 1 dimension, area has 2 dimensions, and cubic has 3 dimensions, but fractal has fractional dimensions (Yulianto, et.al., 2005). Batik motifs could be grouped in some categories. The categories could be based on the original region e.g. coastal or inland regions; on ornamental types e.g. parang, geometry, banji, spreading plants, water plants, flowers and animals; on its geometric patterns, etc. The emergence of various motifs is caused by many factors, namely geographic factors, nature and life order of regions, beliefs and traditions of regions, and relationship among regions (Purwadi, 2012).5 Batik patterns divided into different families of designs, each has hundreds of variations within them.6

Motifs Family The Ceplok family includes a wide range of geometric designs, often based on circular rosettes, stars or other small shapes, forming an overall symmetric pattern on the cloth Grompol means to gather together. Often worn for wedding ceremonies, the pattern symbolizes the coming together of a harmonious marriage, for children, good luck, and happiness.

Ceplok Yogyakarta Parang

Ceplok Grompol

Ceplok Motif

Figure 5 Examples of Ceplok Motifs

Kawung The Kawung is usually reserved for the royal family. It represents a cross-section of the aren-palm fruit, and some say the cross in between the four ovals refers to the universal energy source. While there are many variations of Kawung, the basic structure is a group of four circles or ovals nearly touching each other, laid out on the cloth in geometric symmetry.

5

6

https://thebatikwebsite.wordpress.com/motif-motif-batik/ http://www.winotosastro.com/batik/batikyogya.html

Figure 6 Examples of Kawung Motif Parang Motifs Sometimes referred to as the keris or sword pattern by outsiders, the Javanese calls the Parang motif lidah api (tongue of fire). Parang are one of the most powerful of batik motifs with their strong parallel diagonal lines. There are hundreds of variations, from small 2 cm in Parang Klithik to the largest at 8 cm or more in Parang Barong.

Parang Gendreh

Parang Tuding

Parang Rusak

Figure 7 Examples of Parang Motifs

Parang Barong In times past, Parang Barong was a sacred pattern worn only by the king. The motif reminded him to guard himself carefully so he would be a responsible, honest and just ruler.

Parang Rusak Another of the Parang designs worn by the royal family on state occasions. Parang rusak symbolizes the human being's internal fight against wickedness by controlling their desires so their wise, noble character would win out.

Lereng Motif Lereng motif refers to the diagonal rows of patterns in between the parang motifs. Many patterns are simply rows of narrow diagonal lines filled with a whole array of small patterns. The udan liris, one of the old patterns reserved for the royal court, is one of the more famous of these motifs. Udan liris means light rain or shower symbolizes fertility, the hope for prosperity, determination, to have courage to carry out what is important for the nation and her people.

Lereng Motif

Udan Liris Motif

Figure 8 Examples of Diagonal Row Motifs

Nitik Motif Nitik motif is inspired by woven patola cloths brought by traders from Gujarat, India long time ago. The geometric design is created with small dots and dashes imitating the original woven fabric.

Nitik Randu Seling

Nitik Kembang Jeruk

Figure 9 Examples of Nitik Motifs

Truntum Motif Based on history, Truntum motif designed by Kanjeng Ratu Kencana, wife of King Paku Buwana III of Surakarta Hadiningrat, means love which regrows. She designed the motif as symbol of love forever.

Figures 10 Truntum Motif

Truntum batik pattern is used in wedding ceremonies. Truntum means to give property. Expected the wearer, parents both families, are able to give guidance to the bride and groom to enter the new married life that full of twists and turns7. Semen Motif Semen comes from the word semi, meaning to grow, are kinds of non-geometric patterns inspired by the natural world. Filled with stylized stems, flowers, leaves, mountains, and animals. This group of designs was highly important for royalty on special occasions, as well as common people in every day use. Garuda, the mystical bird-man in Hindu mythology, who carried Vishnu through the heavens, is often portrayed in semen designs with a single, or pair of wings (Lar) or the wings and tail (Sawat). Often associated with semen patterns, the wing shape is also found with parang and ceplok motifs.

Semen Garuda, Yogyakarta

Semen Sido Mukti, Yogyakarta

Semen Sido Asih

Figure 11 Examples of Semen Motifs

Isen Motif Filling patterns of motif usually called to give isen-isen. They have highly characteristic in Indonesian, especially on Javanese batik. Finely rendered in a wax line, these small designs add a depth and harmonious beauty to the overall cloth.

The Elements of Semen Motif Semen motif is from classical batik which is freely pattern. If observed the elements of semen motifs generally there is ornament which symbolize the main elements of godnesses in phylosophy of old Javanese known with the teaching of Hastha Brata.8

7

http://batik-pattern.blogspot.com/2012/07/truntum-batik-pattern.html

8

http://sulisbatik.blogspot.com/2012/10/motif-semen.html

Figure 12 Semen Motif Has The Teaching of Hasta Bratha

Motif Image The experimens showed that from hundreds of the classical batik images, found the image color, the edges of batik ornaments, and the size of the main batik ornaments. In detecting batik image edges using Canny methods table 2, found batik ornaments of large size and high contrast and low contrast produces unrecognizable shapes, small size of ornaments and ornament which is hard to detect such as Semen and Lung-lungan motif.

Figure 13 Examples of Batik Motifs Used In Detecting Image.

That classical batik images can not be classified using the shapes or the textures alone but the classification system utilizing ornaments shape and image textures.

Motif Art & Design According to daily newspaper, Kompas (2001), the items which form motif in classical motif are called ornaments. Some examples of the main ornament are garuda, meru (mountain), trees, temple and parang. The main ornaments define the motif style and they usually have some meaning. In aesthetic side, the quality of motif is not based on the judgment of being good or bad, but in the artisan effort to obey the pakem rule. As a form of decorative art, the ornament or isen is not merely to fill the space left from the batik motifs, but rather as to give specific value. Indeed, to understand the batik motif it is not enough to disentangle the motifs to just merely dots, line, colour or shape, but also its meaning behind it (Lukman, Hariadi & Destiarmand, 2015).

Motif Preservation Although nowadays batik has been modernized, many classical motifs are still preserved but the motifs are somewhat modified for varieties.

Innovation Designs Batik has been modernized, the motifs are somewhat modified for varieties. Based on innovation design, motif has two models, which are fractal and isen (Yulianto, et.al., 2005). There are also geometric fractal in motif innovation designs. Fractal is a rough or fragmented geometric shape of motif that can be split into parts, and each of which is a reduced-size copy of the whole (Khanafiah and Situngkir, 2014). Besides that, there is a new image of motif. the image resulted from classification by using Fuzzy Neural Network (Rangkuti, 2014). Motif could be determined based on human characteristics by using combination between Naive Bayes dan Maximization Expectation Algorhitmics (Fajerin, Ridok, and Ratnawati, 2015). According to Rangkuti (2014), a new image of batik motif types found through Classification by using Fuzzy Neural Network (FNN), that is a rule generation. Recent studies of batik motifs have discovered conjecture to the existence of fractal geometry in batik designs. This finding has given some inspiration of implementing certain fractal concepts, such escape‐time fractal (complex plane) and iterated function system to generate batik motifs. Situngkir (2008) have classified innovation types of batik motifs and found that batik motif could growth computationally by incorporating fractal generation algorithm, such as iterated function system, complex plane, etc. (Khanafiah & Situngkir, 2014). Batik motifs are traditional Indonesian cloth designs, with intrinsic value and a rich and diverse history (Loke, 2015).

Exhibition In museum of batik Danarhadi, Surakarta displayed a total amount of around 10,000 pieces batik motifs from1800s until now. It was recorded as a world record of very large number of those

batik motifs. Besides that, UNESCO also designated Indonesian batik as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2009.

RESULTS Batik motifs could be grouped in some categories, based on the original region on ornamental types, on its geome...