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The Obamas' Indonesian batik exhibited in US
Ann Dunham, mother of US President Barack Obama, kept a vast collection of traditional Indonesian batik cloth, from the time she spent completing her doctorate in Yogyakarta, in the late 80s and early 90s
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Ann Dunham, mother of US President Barack Obama, kept a vast collection of traditional Indonesian batik cloth, from the time she spent completing her doctorate in Yogyakarta, in the late 80s and early 90s.
After Dunham passed away in 1995, her daughter Maya Soetoro Ng, born from an Indonesian father, inherited the collection that she now keeps in a family home in Chicago.
After being in storage for many years, twenty pieces from Dunham's batik collection will now be exhibited in six cities in the US - Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, New York and Washington D.C - from May to August 2009. The exhibition has been organized by the Indonesian Embassy in the US and its consulate general offices.
"Dr. Ann Dunham believed that batik embodied the essence of the culture and tradition of the place that batik comes from; that is Indonesia," said Indonesian Ambassador to the US Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat.
The exhibition titled "A Lady found a Culture: Barack Obama's Mother in Indonesia", was successfully held in Chicago last month, before it opened in Los Angeles on June 1.
Those attending the opening event of the LA exhibition included LA chief of sheriffs Murrieta Mayor, Tom Labonge, a deputy of Arts and Culture from the council, guests from the consular corps, representatives from various local and regional government institutions and friends of Indonesia from the business community.
Besides the batik collection, the Indonesian Consulate General in Los Angeles also presented a fashion show featuring a contemporary batik collection and batik-making workshops by traditional batik makers, with a contemporary artisan who had translated the age-old process of batik-making into new mediums such as wood and canvas.
The exhibition will end in Washington D.C. on August 8, after which the batik exhibition will be open to the public at the Textile Museum in Washington D.C., From Aug. 9 to 23.
