During my summer I visited Bali, a place rich in cultural tradition and heritag. As part of their Hindu religion, outside every household or shop they leave handmade offerings of folded and stapled bamboo leaved filled with flowers, incense and things they feel grateful for that day for example, rice, cigarettes and chocolate. In addition to this, each building usually had a shrine decorated in colourful beaded fabrics and intricate folded bamboo and paper designs. Most lampposts were also decorated in corresponding colourful and detailed designs. Using only cheap and readily available materials they relied on intricate traditional hand made processes to create effective designs. I liked the sculptural and naive aesthetic of these design which would be interesting to translate into my own collages and textile pieces.
Bali also has a diverse textile industry, with one of their main techniques being batik, a process involving multiple layers of dye using wax resist to create pattern and lines. While in Bali I did a batik course which is a technique I would be interested in developing in my knit samples.
My stay coincided with a Hindu festival. During this time the Balinese people attend local ceremonies in traditional costume and take part in theatrical street processions wearing masks followed by a procession of children playing percussion instruments. I visited the Ubud mask museum and saw these masks up close and learnt the history behind them. There were also dolls on display sourced from around the eastern world, showing the wide range of traditional costumes each with their own distinctive style. The exaggerated features and proportions of the masks combined with the bold and garish colours created a strong dramatic effect.
