Exhibition Details: Using wax and warm dye has been introduced to Sri Lanka from Indonesia in 1960s. Since then, Batik has been commodified targeting tourists from Scandinavian countries and Germany arriving on a package tour to Ceylon. The Batik trade gained momentum when luxury hotels commissioned artists to provide the interiors with authentic Sri Lankan design. A turning point was experienced in 1970 when Batik hangings by Ena de Silva were displayed in the Ceylon Pavilion at the Expo 70 in Osaka. Most of her designs were selected from Buddhist Temples of the Kandyan Region. At the opening of the 5 th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Colombo August 1971, the chairperson Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranayake addressed the opening session dressed in a Sri Lankan Batik Saree. Hand crafted Batik has been appropriated as a medium to project national identity: Even temple elephants were draped in Batik cloth providing the Batik designers space to promote their brand image. When Sri Lanka shifted to an open market economy in the 1980s, fabrics were imported from Thailand and India the Batik industry too declined. The collapse of tourism during the 30 years of the Ethnic War was the final blow. Batik now competes with the handloom industry to provide working women with more affordable sarees and dress lengths, using just one or two colours. This exhibition narrates the rise and fall of the Sri Lankan Batiks, with examples from private collections. It ends with some recent designs from our own pilot project to revive the cottage industry.
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