The currency of Indonesian regional textiles: Aesthetic politics in local, transnational, and international emblems

Abstract

Indonesian regional textiles that formerly circulated locally for practical and ritual purposes were identified by New Order government authorities for wider marketing to serve the purposes of economic and national development. This article, based primarily on data from a 1996 Indonesian government‐sponsored textile symposium, explores the transformation and representation of particular regional textile genres, as well as the equation by Indonesian developers of idealist aesthetics and marketing success through national guidance. With examples of textiles from Jambi, Sumatra and highland Central Sulawesi, I argue that some Indonesian developers and fashion designers formulated a hierarchical code of aesthetics that was based on commercial markets and homogenizing nationalist goals. In certain respects, this code of aesthetics runs contrary to the financial and symbolic interests of local textile producers and foreign specialists who are offended by what they consider the denigration and pirating of local cultural arts.

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