Artwork Description
This image of six little parcels ordered in a neat grid against a plain background may at first remind us of an advertisement on our smartphone screen, for standard corporate gifts with a local cultural element.
We soon register, however, that each parcel is in fact a bundle of small folded pieces of batik, each perhaps to be used as wrapping material for gifts. The artist wishes to highlight how “batik fabric, not only as a piece of art but also as a unique gift wrap, carries cultural heritage while expressing the thoughtfulness of the giver”. Every piece has a different design – “each piece of fabric, with its vibrant patterns and colors, tells a cultural story, adding deeper meaning and warmth to the gift”.
Judge Sharul notes the fine and careful execution of the painting: “The elements of batik, the patterns, the folds are so tidily rendered. From afar it looks three-dimensional. The batik fabric looks like real fabric, soft, especially the cut-out strips that tie the bundles together like string.” Generosity, in this painting, is wrapped up in the care and labour put into what is being offered.