Threads of Tradition and Contemporary
Last month, we visited Sarawak, Malaysia, for the annual Rainforest World Music Festival.
A prominent instrument that was a part of many performances was the traditional Bornean lute called the sape. A paddle-like instrument carved from a single piece of wood, some of them are decorated with vibrant colours. It is plucked like a guitar and produces a gentle tone. The beauty of this instrument is brought out best by songstress Alena Murang who performed a number of songs with her sape on Day 2 of the festival!
(P.S. We apologize we didn’t take any videos of the festival so these ones from YouTube will have to suffice)
Nowadays, sape makers would include a function to enable the lute to be plugged into a giant speaker like an electric guitar, so that it can be performed on much bigger stages like for this festival.
One of the most memorable line-ups on Day 1 was a collaboration between Rhythm Rebels, an Ubud-based band that fuses a unique blend of sounds from a diverse range like dubstep, electric bass, didgeridoos, synthesizers, and Selonding Bali Aga, a community of Gamelan musicians working to preserve the musical heritage of the traditional instruments. The output resulted in an electrifying blend of “modern” and “tradition”, in such a unique way that is impossible to describe so you’d have to watch this video.
After the festival, we visited the Borneo Cultures Museum as soon as it opened because we were warned by a friend that we would run out of time because there is so much to see.
On the top floor the exhibition was titled “Objects of Desire” where we found ourselves in more familiar territory with the various traditional crafts displays in Sarawak. What caught our attention was the preserved displays of plants used by the Iban textile dyers - engkudu (Morinda citrifolia) roots, pressed engkerabai (Psychotria viridiflora) leaves and the tarum plant, used for indigo dyeing in Sarawak. The display is labelled as the Marsdenia tinctoria species but it looks more like an Indigofera sp.
A beautiful Iban pua kumbu textile (pua = blanket; kumbu = made with ikat technique) greeted us at the beginning of the textile section. This enormous textile is more than two metres long. It is dyed predominantly with red dye from the engkudu, with some black outlines where it was probably over-dyed with indigo.
The Iban weavers are sometimes referred to as “dream weavers”, because the patterns on the textiles are inspired by the images and visions that the weavers encounter in their dreams. Some patterns are said to be so powerful that unless the weaver has a particular dream that gives her permission to weave it on her textile, she is not allowed to.
According to the video of Bangie anak Embol, the textile artist, this particular textile tells the story about a brave man, Keling, trying to save his wife, Kumang, who was trapped in a lime tree by bad spirits. The design of the cloth was “shown” to her in her dream, where she encountered two ladies weaving the pua kumbu by a river - the cloth that is hanging in the museum display today.
As a layperson, it is difficult to imagine the amount of laborious work involved, working thread by thread but still keeping the overall artistic vision in mind to materialize the intricacy in the patterning. It takes the artist months of dedicated, laborious work to complete, not to mention years of practice before to even be able to successfully complete this piece.
Just a bit of a walk away from the museum, the tourist market presents a different and more practical aesthetic.
The designs were curiously similar but modified to suit tourist souvenirs such as pouches, wallets and scarves. The sharpness of the red on these ones are certainly from synthetic dyes.
Our encounters on this trip revealed the profound pride Sarawakians have for their cultural legacies, prompting us to contemplate the dynamic nature of craft. What we may flatly label as "traditional" is, in reality, a living and evolving practice, continuously reshaped by those who engage with it. This visit also led us to ponder where we draw our inspirations from, if not from such deep ancestral ties that some craftspeople embody. How do we infuse our creations with meaning inspired from our own stories and upbringing? This is our journey to find out.
Upcoming Event:
Masak-masak Walk / Art Jam Session
27 July, 10am to 12pm
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Till next letter,
Liz and Shirin