Priyageetha Dia
Priyageetha Dia’s interdisciplinary art practice unfolds narratives of identity and the self, the influence of representation through image-making and tech culture, and the social function of the public sphere. Her material language of utilising gold in honour of her ancestral heritage, embodies as an alter-ego in highlighting perceptions that coincide with body and space.
Under the 405 residency, the research looks into the processes of factory-produced batik through the concept of ‘production as tool’/re-production -- culturally and mechanically - from materialistic qualities ranging from wax, pigments, and fabric. Referencing manufactured batik textiles of maternal customs, the works also examine the process of time and memory in production, that is otherwise unseen.
Looking into the production processes of craft, labour, and work, the research explores the study of processes in batik-making, referencing from mass-produced imitation batik textiles within the Southeast Asian region. The process looks into the relation of the artist’s labour to traditional craftsmanship and industrial production, the influence and relationship of body and materiality, art as a sculptural commodity and the transformation of knowledge. The methodology consists of extracting the mechanical and automation out of printed textile and then attempting to re-establish the traditional into the sequence of labour production in batik-making. Second slide: Documentation of tracing motifs and details from an imitation Malaysian batik textile onto a silk fabric using a light-box.
“The capitalist collectivization of production emerged on the basis of the division of labour, competition and the growth of private capital, which made the production process irrevocably spontaneous and therefore intolerant of free, conscious creation. This kind of collectivization touched only material production; the other areas of production remained within the boundaries of individual labour. The artist was stuck in the old technical methods.
Now there was an impassable line of radical differences of methods and forms of technique between him and mass production. The artist remained a craftsman; he was technically backward, even though the process of ‘social building’ – leaping over workshop manufacture – based itself on the machine.”
— Capitalism and the Artistic Industry, Boris Arvatov
Documentation of using the canting tool to imprint the marks with hot wax that was traced onto the fabric.
The use of pigment in the fabrics were referenced from the tonal values of wax - shades of brown and yellow. Each fabric was dyed a lighter tone of brown and the amount of pigment was increased gradually. The limited use of colour was intentional to highlight the gestural marks from the use of the canting tool, embracing the accidental drips as part of the fallible process. Second slide: Documentation of adding pigment solution of yellow, purple and green dye with sodium carbonate - the pigment solution was diluted with water to create lighter tones.
Each block is molded from a mixture of paraffin, soy, and beeswax which have been utilised previously. The mixture also contained various pigments, sodium carbonate, residue and water. Wax holds memory through the course of drawing with heat, re-heating, removing with heat and then solidifying into matter. Each process looks at a bodily relationship to how wax is handled in batik-making and how it could be collectivised and sustained into a multiple, single units without eliminating it from the entire production process. Second slide: Documentation of removing wax from the silk fabric by adding in boiling water and sodium carbonate for an easier slip.
The intersection between the hardness of the wax block along with the lightness of the fabric bring about the sculptural language between both materials. Draping, folding, wrapping, clothing the wax block as though it pertains to a bodily character as how batik is utilised as an article of clothing.
Documentation of trimming the fabric edges and flushing out the sides.
The current body of works in progress is still at an exploratory phase and may see newer aspects to its materiality.