Wax as Art - Traditional and Modern Batik

Batik, anciently known as "Wax Val". It is one of the traditional folk printing and dyeing techniques. Nowadays, it is still very popular among the Buyi, Miao, Yao and Gelao ethnic groups, who like to use batik as decoration for dresses, blankets and bags. The main method is to dip the wax knife into the wax liquid, depict geometric designs or patterns of flowers, birds, insects and fish on the white cloth, and then dip it into the indigo tank (mainly in blue color), and then use water to boil off the wax to show the patterns. The structure is rigorous, the lines are smooth, and the decorative interest is very strong, with a distinctive national style.

Junyouhui Wang Aijun anthology "Batik" chapter interpretation: batik, is an ancient dyeing art, Indonesia or Malaysia is called Batik, the Japanese called wax valentine dyeing (also known as batik), using this method of dyeing out of the pattern, both the decorative interest of the art and practical value. The art of batik has a long history in China. According to the records of the Eryi Records, the dyeing of valerian existed during the Qin and Han Dynasties, became popular during the Six Dynasties, and the court of the Sui Dynasty was particularly fond of this handicraft, and special patterns appeared. As for the physical excavation, even earlier than the documentary records, there are Changsha Warring States Chu Tomb appeared in one side of the dyeing val model quilt top, pattern is not known. There was also a piece of finished product unearthed in the Jin Dynasty, with the pattern of overlapping spots of flowers, which is also known as onyx val in the Tang and Song dynasties. Chinese batik was especially prevalent in the Tang Dynasty, and the technique was much more sophisticated. Batik at that time can be divided into two kinds: monochrome dyeing and compound color dyeing; compound color dyeing can be as many as four or five kinds of colors. Later generations can see the luxurious and beautiful batik patterns of the Tang Dynasty from the clothes of the two women in Song Huizong's copy of Zhang Xuan's picture of pounding and training, and from the clothes of the horseback-riding figures in the picture of Mrs. Guo Guo's tour of spring. Because of the great influence of Chinese culture on Japan in the Tang Dynasty, the Shokurain in Nara has been preserving various treasures of Chinese craftsmanship since the Tang Dynasty, including a set of batik screens, which were also brought back by Japanese monks studying in Tang in the Tang Dynasty. Batik in China, since the Song Dynasty began to decline, but at the same time in the South Seas (especially Java, Sumatra and other islands) is very prevalent, so far, Indonesia and Malaysia people's ordinary clothes are almost all made of batik fabrics.

Mainly from the life of the Miao

Batik is a traditional technique inherited by the Miao people in Danzhai County, Anshun County, Zijin County and other areas of Guizhou Province, the ancient name of "Wax Val", the Miao said "Wutu", meaning "Batik clothes", "Batik clothes". "Batik clothing".

Danzhai County, Anshun County and Zijin County are multi-ethnic areas inhabited mainly by the Miao people, and in the long period of isolation from the outside world in the hard conditions, the residents here gradually formed a self-sufficient way of life, and the ancient batik technique was therefore preserved. According to the custom of the Miao, all women are obliged to pass on the batik skill, and every mother must teach her daughter to make batik. Therefore, Hmong women have been learning this skill since they were young, planting indigo and cotton, spinning and weaving, painting and picking wax, dipping and cutting, and passing it down from generation to generation. In this situation, these Miao settlements have formed a customary culture dominated by the art of batik, such as clothing and attire, marriage and festival rituals, socialization, funeral customs and so on.

Hmong batik is an art created for the needs of the producers themselves, and its products are mainly daily necessities, including women's clothing, bedsheets, quilts, wrapping cloths, bandanas, knapsacks, bags, backpacks, backpacks, and burial sheets for funerals.

Modern batik painting reveals the creative state of the artist's conscious or unconscious control and uncontrolled self-regulation by the episodic nature of craft production. Batik artists pay special attention to the use of wax materials, the role of the conversion of the medium in painting, resulting in the wax texture of the texture of the grain. Emphasis is placed on the artist's use of the unique wax, which reveals the texture of the wax material itself in the work. Wax modeling is to use wax as the main material of anti-dyeing, and to shape the object of the artist's conception in wax. After dyeing and applying colors to present the artistic image, which constitutes the main content of the work, the art form of wax modeling is a new style of modern batik painting. Artists use wax to cover or mask the surface of the canvas. Covering means that the wax is permanently attached to the canvas and becomes part of the work like other pigments. Masking is the temporary attachment of the wax material to the canvas as a medium for painting, acting as a kind of transformation. This type of covering is the conventional method of traditional batik, and the application of the covering technique in modern batik painting has its own inherited meaning. The painting technique of covering, applied in modern batik painting, has its innovative consciousness of subverting the tradition. Batik art highlights the unique role of wax and dye in batik painting. Batik painting is to borrow the wax liquid made of solid wax melted hot and draw images with the wax liquid. The physical and chemical principle that the wax liquid is reduced to a solid wax layer after cooling is utilized to shape the painting image. The solidified wax layer is easy to crack into patterns, and after dyeing, natural dry cracked wax patterns appear. Therefore, it is called wax pattern, and wax pattern is very much like ice pattern, so some people also call it ice pattern. Because of the unique artistic value of wax pattern in batik, some scholars and artists claim it as the soul of batik.

Obviously, the wax patterns occupy an extremely important position and aesthetic value in the artistic modeling of batik. These special wax crack traces of texture, are due to the use of the characteristics of the wax function to be realized, the characteristics of the wax: heat melting into liquid, cold curing for solid restorative properties, to the batik painting modeling and production of wax patterns to bring the possibility. The cured wax has the property of resisting water and preventing dyeing, so that after the wax modeling image is drawn and dyed or painted, it still retains the clear wax pattern. This kind of transferring image has never been used in other painting disciplines of plastic arts. This unique and personalized form of expression is unique in the field of painting and is therefore particularly distinctive. This meaningful form of expression depends on the process of wax materialization. The choice of the wax, the configuration of the wax, the regulation of the wax temperature and the method of applying the wax will have a direct influence on the creation of batik painting. There are many kinds of waxes and their melting points are different. After thousands of years of practical operation, batik people have selected beeswax and paraffin wax as the main materials for batik dyeing, and added rosin to increase the brittleness or modulated beeswax and paraffin wax in different ratios to form soft and hard waxes with different degrees of brittleness and softness in their practice. Modern batik artists at home and abroad have also explored the use of various substances with anti-dyeing properties such as rice paste, resin, grease, gum fat, etc., as anti-dyeing materials for the creation of the art of batik, and the Africans have also utilized clay as anti-dyeing materials for the drawing of batik. Anti-dyeing is the main content of the core process of batik art. Any material with anti-dyeing property, as long as any painting material suitable for use as batik painting material, can be used as batik or any dyeing material and applied to batik painting, its core function is anti-dyeing. Only the material with anti-dyeing property is of substantial significance in the creation of batik painting.