|
|
|
| Sunday, 19 February 2006 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Vipula - boss of the batik by Shanika Sriyananda
A man with different 'souls' - one time a journalist, then a film critic and a producer, and now a prominent batik designer, Buddhi Keerthisena dreams of a better future for batik. Keerthisena who got the opportunity of designing the fifth Executive President Mahinda Rajapakse's personal flag, says better days for batik industry is looming. "We see a silver lining across the dark clouds. Both President and Madam Rajapakse are batik lovers, and they wear batik very often at local and international functions. This will make batik more popular". Batik, according to him, is not new to us and is very similar to 'Somana', which was used to design clothes for chieftains during the Kandyan era. The art of somana did not follow the wax process, instead used vibrant colours mixed with some form of formula to retain the colours on the fabric. Recalling the 'glorious' days of the past, where batik was one of a major foreign exchange earners of the country, he says that in 1970 batik reached its peak, and gradually its popularity dropped after the 1983 riots. In 1960 batik was introduced to the country by Soma Udabage, who learned this art from Indonesia, and following her footsteps several young people including Vipula Dharmawardena, Lina de Silva and Keerthisena took into batik designing. Their talent in putting new ideas into this alien form of art created our own identity. Their designs depicted the Sri Lankan culture, and to a foreign eye it gave an indigenous outlook. " Vipula was the man who opened doors to the world, and carved a Sri Lankan style into the Indonesian batik. He was highly creative and carried the Sri Lankan identity in many international exhibitions and got many orders for the country. We too followed him", Keerthisena adds. But he claims that the cheap batik garments sold at very low prices by the wholesale dealers in the Pettah market, is a big blow to the industry. "You cannot call these batik at all. They are just work by people who do not know what batik is. With no designs...no proper colour, they use very poor quality fabric for these garments", he says. Dreaming of a future for batik as in Malaysia, where he participated in the International Batik Convention and Exhibition, he says that batik gets lots of state support in Malaysia. "The government considers batik as one major foreign earner of the country, and provide full support to develop the industry by organising international events and encouraging people to wear batik", Keerthisena says adding that, one day a week people should wear batik in Malaysia. "From the Prime Minister to ministers and from top government officials to minor workers, in all the state institutions, they should wear batik on Saturdays. The public can select any day of the week to wear batik. This practice came after the governments request to the public as a major step towards making batik more popular among the ordinary people", he says. According to Keerthisena, the Malaysian Government supports the batik designers and gives every opportunity for them to grow. He hopes that batik will catch the Western market in the future, as in the past, if the country can train youth who have talent and creativity. "At the moment we do not have a training centre for batik, and this is an art which can grow with creativity", says Keerthisena who created batik 'osaris' (Kandyan sarees) for the world's first woman Prime Minister Mrs. Bandaranaike and sarongs for the late Minister Gamini Dissanayake, and the late President Ranasinghe Premadasa. "I never got a chance to design sarees for President Chandrika Kumaratunga, but did some before she become the President", he says. |
|
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
