IBU WARNI, SARONG LANCURAN

Ibu Warni 
Born 1950s, Batang, Indonesia

SARONG LANCURAN 2025
100% Cotton, synthetic dyes
Hand-drawn wax resist on machine-woven cotton
216 x 114cm

This sarong is worked in the lancuran style, in which the composition is structured and divided by the lancur, which are elongated, feathery forms that reference simultaneously the sweeping tail feathers of the jantan (the prized fighting rooster) and the long, blade-like strands of the pandan leaf (Pandanus amaryllifolius).

The tail feathers of a jantan cock, highly sought-after in traditional Javanese culture, symbolise virility, vitality and boldness. The pandan leaf, by contrast, is one of the most fragrant and spiritually significant plants in Javanese life: its sweet, vanilla-like aroma is used to flavour food and to perfume ceremonial spaces, and the Javanese proverb kaya pandan wangi — sapa nyedhak, melu wangi (like the fragrant pandan — whoever draws near, also becomes fragrant) invokes the plant as a symbol of good character that elevates all those around it.

The sections created by the lancur divisions are each filled with fine isen-isen (fill motifs): inspired by polong kedawung — the distinctive pods of the medicinal Parkia timoriana — alongside cecek (evenly interspaced dots) and ukelan (hook-like curling forms suggesting unfurling vines). Together these fills create a layered, textured ground.

The foreground is animated by bunches of buah jamblang — the Javanese plum (Syzygium cumini), also called Java plum or jambolan — arranged in creature-like clusters alongside flowers that resemble starfish and chains of leaves that trail like seaweed. Buah jamblang is a plant of deep significance in the Javanese healing tradition: its fruit, leaves and bark have been depicted in the ancient temple reliefs of Java, including those at Prambanan and Penataran, as a plant known and used since at least the Majapahit Kingdom to concoct jamu. The deep purple-black fruit is considered a fruit of the gods in Hindu tradition. Combined with the dominant use of blue throughout the cloth, the aquatic, swaying quality of the foreground gives the batik a distinctly underwater feel, an evocation of the coastal world from which Rifa’iyah batik emerges.

The kepala (head panel) features tumpal, upward-pointing triangles representing the sacred mountain peaks where earthly and spiritual realms meet, and the pelaraan or semplak motif, in which coconut fronds are arranged in different configurations to create arches and crowns. The pelaraan frond arrangements invoke the ceremonial coconut frond decorations of Javanese weddings and blessings as symbols of protection, prosperity and the sweeping away of misfortune. Multiple panels and borders throughout the cloth are detailed with flowers, fill motifs, vines and patterned chains.

This piece was created over five months and dyed in the tiga negeri (three nations) tradition with morinda red from Lasem, sogan brown from Solo and indigo blue from Pekalongan — each dye bath requiring the entire cloth to be covered in wax afresh, a process of extraordinary patience and devotion.

This work exhibited internationally in the 2026 exhibition, Batik Rifa'iyah: Be Immersed.

Ibu Warni

Ibu Warni learned to batik from her mother and grandmother, and was already completing her own pieces at the age of ten. She loves to create batik, beautiful batik, particularly the most demanding pieces in the tiga negeri format: tambal (patchwork style) and lancuran among her greatest passions. Small but mighty, Ibu Warni is a mother of fourteen and grandmother of many, and a proud advocate of the batik Rifa’iyah tradition as one of its most experienced and celebrated living practitioners.

I have been making batik since I was a child, and now I am old. Batik is my daily work.

I hope Batik Rifa’iyah can grow and become known not only within Indonesia, but hopefully in countries as well.