Art and Activism; Empowering Batik Skills for Disabilities by Contemporary Batik Artisan

Abstract

The current trend of artists, both individually and collectively, is to try to carry out activism-based art practices as an effort to explore themselves regarding their role in the ecosystem of their supporting community. In craft art, there is the term Craftivism which was first discovered by a craftsman Betsy Greer in 2007. An actor and activist in Sukabumi City who is a craftsman and owner of Rumah Batik Lokatmala named Fonna Melania, presents typical Sukabumi batik motifs to bring sustainable benefits to the community and the surrounding environment, craftsmen try to respond to social problems that are present in their environment using batik art media as a method. The existence of people with disabilities who do not have the opportunity to work, craftsmen try to invite and offer batik training as well as the opportunity to become jobs. Until collaborating with the Sentra PHALA MARTA Foundation (social rehabilitation center), the aim is to increase the skills of people with disabilities. This research is the result of an analysis of an art-activism movement carried out by a batik craftsman in solving problems that are present in his environment. By using the Craftivism analysis method by Alyce McGovern, there are three aspects that need to be considered, the first aspect is the personal aspect of batik craftsmen who try to respond to social problems in their environment, the second aspect of the Lokatmala Batik community which is a forum or institution led directly by craftsmen in creating an ecosystem of relations or cooperation between craftsmen and people with disabilities in the production process at Rumah Batik Lokatmala, and the third aspect is politics (power), namely how craftsmen present solutions, make statements and take a stand on problems in their social environment while fighting for a better change in life. The activism fought for by craftsmen through batik art is carried out for the purpose of change for the better, improving the standard of living and welfare of disabled groups in their social environment, especially in Sukabumi.