Friday with Friends!

The Other Lives of Batik:
Musings on the Journey of Textile Treasures to the Peranakan Museum’s Batik Nyonyas exhibition
Peter Lee

Friday, 25 April 2025, 7–8 pm
ACM Ngee Ann Auditorium

Batik has been collected and studied for over a century, and is usually understood from the perspective of production, motif, and meaning. This talk takes a different approach by surveying the complex journey of batiks created by three generations of the Oeij family into the collection of the Peranakan Museum. This provides new insight into dynamic aspects of this important art form: its life, aesthetic evolution, and transformation into collectible artefact.

About the speaker

Peter Lee is the co-curator of Batik Nyonyas: Three Generations of Art and Entrepreneurship. He is the Founding Curator of NUS Baba House and host of The Mark of Empire on CNA.

 

_{Images:
Nyonya Oeij Soen King. Kain panjang, 1890–1925. Cotton (drawn batik). Gift of Ika, Melia, and Inge Hendromartono, 2017-00335
Nyonya Oeij Kok Sing. Sarong, 8 November 1939. Cotton (drawn batik). Gift of the family of Mr and Mrs Lee Kip Lee, 2024-00356
Jane Hendromartono. Kain panjang, late 1950s. Cotton (drawn batik). Gift of Mr Agam Riadi, 2025-00030}

 

Organised by the Friends of the Museums (FOM) with support from ACM