MAKI UMEHARA

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Hidden Desire

The Dutch imported wax Batik from Asia, thus pioneering a new technique in colouration and textile design. The material which they produced was then exported to the African colonies, where line and colour was given their own symbolic relevance. “Coloured Batik” displays such an “African” repeating pattern, produced today in industrial processes. Mass production and hand work thus each shape a side of the same material. Umehara allows a complex process of geographical migration involving forms, techniques and colonial references to fall together before returning this archaeological process onto the Asiatic context of the Kicho.

Excerpt from Calm Heaven on Earth / Text: Stefan Weppelmann