User:0863700

Minor Digital Craft

FANTASTIC FORGERIES

MY PICK

Peranakan , Jawa , Indonesië date: ca. 1900 measurements: 108 × 70 × 20 cm 170cm arm wideness

embroidery, silk

The orange jacket and skirt are put together to become a traditional wedding costume for the Peranakan Chinese.

Orange was a very beloved color for the Peranakan Chinese and the coat is called ‘mang ao’ , dragon coat.

This color orange was called ‘kuning pinang masak’ and referred to the yellow/orange color of the betel-palm.

The coat has different embroidered motives like a dragon, phoenix, peonies, clouds, mountains and waves.

WHY I picked this costume because I am interested in Asian culture and there history and crafts.

This costume fascinated me because I found out that in the time this costume is made there was a emigration stream of Chinese people coming to Indonesia.

Because of this mingle the traditional crafts of both lands merged together. Like Chinese embroidery with Indonesian batik.

Also all the pictures/ illustrations have a meaning and they value this a lot and they tell a sort of story.

To make a replica of the wedding costume I want to do more research about the different illustations and prints and meanings of these, discover more about the Chinese/Indonesian history and techniques used in this time.

After this desk research I want to start with material experiments to replicate the costume using modern day crafts or digital techniques and give the costume a new look. 

The dragon and phoenix together stand for marriage luck. The clouds, mountains and waves represent air, land and water and with that the cosmos.