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ISNIA
ISNIA stands for the collaborative team of Agus Ismoyo (Indonesia) and Nia Fliam (United States). In 1985 Ismoyo and Nia collaborated to establish the batik studio Brahma Tirta Sari. Ismoyo and Fliam were the first artists in Indonesia to extensively explore the medium of Javanese batik as contemporary textile art outside the boundaries of modern lukisan batik (batik painting). Ismoyo comes from a family whose ancestors produced batik for the royal court of Surakarta in Central Java. Fliam was born in the United States and studied at the Pratt Institute, New York. She came to Indonesia in 1983 to study batik and has lived there since.
They have exhibited extensively in Indonesia and overseas including Europe, the United States and Southeast Asian countries. In Australia their exhibitions have included: Sydney Biennale 1998, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory Hot Wax (Australia & Southeast Asia tour), National Craft Acquisition Award 1998 and Queensland Art Gallery Asia-Pacific Triennale 2000. Brahma Tirta Sari Studio also maintains Argasoka Gallery in Ubud, Bali as their permanent exhibition space/commercial outlet. Since 1988 Brahma Tirta Sari Studio has conducted numerous workshops in Indonesia and Australia with Aboriginal batik artists from the Northern Territory, South and Western Australia.
With their studio’s thirty-plus batik artisans in Yogyakarta they have embraced artistic traditions and philosophical ideas that span a number of continents. One very important artistic collaboration, between the cultures of Java and Aboriginal women artists from the central Australian desert community of Utopia, began in 1994. They discovered that both groups share a common appreciation of their ancestral heritage and its connection with artistic creativity. Starting in Alice Springs in March 1999 and continuing for more than two years, Ismoyo and Fliam, and two artists from their studio, Sumartono and Maryono, collaborated with 8 artists from the Utopia Community: Lena Apweri, Ade Bird Apetyarr, Hilda Apweri, Myrtle Apetyarr, Violet Apetyarr, Gloria Angal, Joy Apetyarr, and Barbara Waer, making 20 large batik art pieces.
The artists sat for long days. If someone were tired they would stretch out on the mattress where someone else was sitting and so the sense of the group was always strong. Conversation might be lively or occasional, and at times no one spoke for long periods while they were immersed in the creative flow. This intensity was maintained for 13 days with just one day of rest.
Eight of these batiks were exhibited at the Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane in September 1999 and along with the subsequent pieces have entered public and private collections in Australia and abroad, including one currently exhibited at The Island Gallery.
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