Cianjur, Priangan, West-Java c. 1816 - 1846

Curator: The light is just incredible in this pencil drawing, isn’t it? It’s titled "Cianjur, Priangan, West-Java," attributed to Jannes Theodorus Bik and believed to have been created sometime between 1816 and 1846. The fineness of the lines is amazing. Editor: My immediate feeling is one of tranquility. The landscape feels spacious, even sparse, allowing the buildings and vegetation to breathe. There’s something dreamlike about its muted tones and how gently it seems to emerge from the page. Curator: That dreaminess probably speaks to Bik's position as an outsider looking in. Consider the history; Java was under Dutch colonial rule during this period, and artworks such as this played a role in shaping European perceptions. The subtle suggestion of exoticism might have appealed to a European audience. Editor: Yes, the artist seems careful not to make it too ‘exotic’ in that sense. There's a restraint in the depiction, a desire for accurate portrayal rather than romantic exaggeration. The various roof structures almost take on symbolic importance as representing a place of habitation, but without excessive detailing. Curator: Exactly! The precision used in rendering the buildings, and the decision to depict them amidst their natural surroundings, arguably gives a certain authority to the colonial gaze, wouldn’t you agree? This aesthetic approach would have been viewed very differently by the colonised, naturally. Editor: Absolutely, this is very true. It feels as though the houses and nature itself represent symbols of both resilience and adaptation. The almost ghost-like representation leaves them suspended between cultures, almost impermanent. The high flag, flying to the sky, becomes an important marker. Curator: It makes you think about what the inhabitants of these dwellings, these colonial subjects, thought of such an image. Did they ever see these drawings? Did they interpret these spaces through similar frameworks of home, security and the everyday? That to me is the power of an image like this. Editor: The sketch's understatement and quiet dignity certainly linger. It makes me consider that even what appears representational bears complex meanings of its time and within different cultures.