Collecting Outlasts an Empire

Driessen’s romanticisation of the tie dye practice is linked to his position within the Dutch colonial empire. Tie dye was an opportunity to create new markets for Driessen’s business and in some ways it was exploited – by exposing tie dye to Western industrialisation, it meant that the practice lost a lot of its cultural and social significance from Indonesia.

However, by researching and saving these processes, Driessen’s work went beyond just displaying tie dye like the colonial exhibitions. While he may not have collected these objects to give the Indonesian makers a platform in the Netherlands, his work does allow us to tell these stories so many years later as well as continue to explore their importance amongst a variety of communities and histories.