Step 13 of 14

The Selendang: Performance and Uses

Related Images

  • Fig. 1. An object from the Museum Volkenkunde collection shows a tie dye design using similar colours and methods from the same region in Indonesia. Object TM-23-75a [Museum Volkenkunde](/https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11840/76545)
  • Fig. 2. And in slightly better condition, an early 20th century example from the V&A collection. Which pattern do you prefer? [Shawl](https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O478972/shawl-unknown/)
  • Fig. 3. A camera catches a selendang in motion as the woman dancer. [Wikimedia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/COLLECTIE_TROPENMUSEUM_Klassieke_Javaanse_hofdanseres_TMnr_60020429.jpg)
  • Fig. 4. Illustration of a ‘dancing girl’ from 1817. Detail on the edges of the draped fabric suggest it has been tie dyed, but is a simpler example than our patterned selendang. [Wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batik#/media/File:Raffles_A_Ronggeng_or_dancing_girl.jpg)
  • Fig. 5. Watercolour of an Indonesian dancer with a brightly dyed and patterned selendang. [Europeana](https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/91619/SMVK_EM_objekt_3588300?q=Anna)

Step number ten. The final step creates a border for the illustration itself: a full length, unfolded selendang (‘slendang’). The detail of the gentle folds shows how the colours and patterns drape together in harmony.

Driessen watched as native women transformed long pieces of plain fabric into vibrant patterned selendangs for dancing:

“The natural gracefulness, with which they move about their arms and limbs and veil themselves with their slendangs, throwing one end into the air and catching it back again, whilst the other end hangs down upon the floor, is simply wonderful.”

It would have also been used amongst the Indonesian community for more everyday things, as a shawl or for carrying babies. In these contexts, each colour, pattern and material signify deeply personal things to the wearer.