The artist

Anji is a modern batik artist in Japan. Her fascination with art started at around a young age stemming from the world of animation where she would doodle cartoon characters of her favourite tv shows. From there, her passion continued to grow from a hobby to an aspiring profession. Her influences also include art nouveau inspiration.

Never studied art before, her interest in batik began from an after school program at a community centre. She took part at a weekend program and from there she was selected to become one of the local artists to teach the community. She began teaching non-profit programs.

Few years have passed and her pursue for art diminished but her love for art stayed as a hobby. Deciding to reignite her love for art she took a chance with her childhood passion.

The art

Batik is a traditional Indonesian technique of wax-resist dyeing that is applied to the whole cloth. The applied wax resists dyes and therefore allows the artisan to colour selectively by adding dyes to the cloth and repeating if multiple colours are desired. The wax is then removed with boiling water.