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CCD-NL Contemporary Craft Review
Introduction
CCD-NL Contemporary Craft Review presents independent reviews of artists, designers, makers, and cultural practitioners whose work is rooted in craft, material culture, and living traditions. The series explores how traditional knowledge continues to evolve through contemporary artistic practice across cultures.
This review focuses on Folds of Memory: Kebaya, an interdisciplinary project by London-based textile artist Janina Chandra. Combining photography, stop-motion animation, sound, and installation, the project demonstrates how a familiar garment can become the starting point for a wider artistic enquiry. Rather than presenting the kebaya simply as an object of dress or cultural heritage, Chandra reimagines it as a material through which memory, absence, and cultural continuity are explored.
Although the finished animation lasts only eighteen seconds, it forms only one part of a much broader body of work. The project's strength lies not in the duration of the video, but in the careful process through which observation of a single garment develops into a thoughtful exploration of materiality, memory, and lived experience.
From Textile Observation to Digital Practice
What makes Folds of Memory: Kebaya particularly interesting is where the work begins. Rather than starting with digital technology, Janina Chandra begins with the kebaya itself. Through photography and a series of visual studies, she explores how the garment folds, drapes, and retains traces of the body even when unworn. These observations gradually develop into stop-motion animation, printed works, and a projected installation, allowing a single textile idea to unfold across different media.
Photography, stop-motion, and installation are not presented as separate works, but as connected stages of the same creative process. Photography captures the physical presence of the kebaya, stop-motion introduces movement, and projection expands the work into an immersive spatial experience. Together, they show how careful observation of a single garment can grow into a wider exploration of memory through cloth.
Figure 1. Research materials from the early development of Folds of Memory: Kebaya, including observational photographs, experimental image studies, and the kebaya that served as the starting point for the project. Together, these materials illustrate Janina Chandra's research-led approach, in which close observation of the garment informed the subsequent development of photography, stop-motion animation, and installation. Image courtesy of Janina Chandra.
The Kebaya Beyond Dress
The kebaya holds a unique place within Indonesian cultural history. More than a garment, it carries memories of family, femininity, domestic life, ceremony, and cultural identity. While many contemporary artists revisit the kebaya through questions of gender, identity, or postcolonial history, Janina Chandra takes a quieter and more restrained approach.
Rather than placing the garment on the body, she removes the body altogether. What remains is the cloth itself, its folds, weight, translucency, and surface. The absence of the wearer becomes central to the work, inviting viewers to consider how textiles can retain traces of the lives they once accompanied. Every crease seems to suggest a previous gesture, allowing the kebaya to function less as an object of dress and more as an archive of embodied experience. Instead of asking viewers to focus on appearance or fashion, Chandra draws attention to the material behaviour of the cloth itself and the memories it quietly carries.
This subtle shift gives the project much of its emotional depth. The kebaya is no longer presented simply as cultural heritage or decorative dress, but as a material witness to lived experience. In doing so, Chandra encourages viewers to see textiles not as passive objects, but as active carriers of memory.
Materiality Across Media
One of the most distinctive qualities of Folds of Memory: Kebaya is the way material thinking remains central even as the work moves into digital media. Although realised through photography, stop-motion animation, projection, and sound, every stage begins with direct engagement with the kebaya itself. Rather than replacing the textile, digital media becomes a means of extending its expressive possibilities.
This is particularly evident in the stop-motion process. Through a series of small, carefully controlled adjustments, Chandra manipulates the garment by hand before assembling the individual images into continuous movement. The animation relies not on digital effects, but on the gradual transformation of the textile itself.
Figure 2. Selected stages in the development of Folds of Memory: Kebaya. The gradual repositioning of the kebaya demonstrates how subtle physical interventions generate movement, echoing the slow rhythms of folding, handling, and making that characterise textile practice. Image courtesy of Janina Chandra.
From Studio Practice to Installation
Folds of Memory: Kebaya does not end with the stop-motion animation. The project continues through photographic studies, printed works, and a proposed large-scale projection installation, with each medium offering a different way of encountering the same central idea. Photography draws attention to the material qualities of the kebaya, stop-motion introduces movement, while projection expands the work into an immersive spatial experience.
Rather than repeating the same concept in different formats, each stage builds naturally on the one before it. What begins as close observation of a garment gradually develops into an experience that invites viewers to engage with memory through space, movement, and duration. This continuity gives the project a strong sense of coherence while demonstrating an artistic practice that evolves across media without losing its conceptual focus.
Figure 3. Visualisation of Folds of Memory: Kebaya as a large-scale projection installation. By extending the work into an immersive exhibition environment, the projection invites viewers to experience the slow movement of the kebaya as a spatial encounter rather than simply as a screen-based animation. Image courtesy of Janina Chandra.
Presented at an architectural scale, the installation changes the relationship between viewer and artwork. Instead of observing the animation on a personal screen, audiences encounter the moving textile within a shared exhibition space, where its slow gestures unfold at a different pace. This shift in scale reinforces the contemplative quality of the work and demonstrates how a single textile-based idea can successfully adapt across different media while maintaining its conceptual integrity.
Critical Evaluation
What makes Folds of Memory: Kebaya particularly convincing is the consistency of its artistic vision. Every formal decision, from the restrained animation and muted colour palette to the repetitive rhythm and understated soundscape, supports the project's exploration of memory, absence, and material presence. Nothing feels unnecessary or decorative; each element contributes to the work's central idea.
Another strength lies in the way Chandra brings textile practice into conversation with contemporary digital media. Neither medium dominates the other. Instead, digital technology extends the expressive possibilities of the kebaya while remaining closely connected to its physical qualities and cultural significance.
The work is also marked by a quiet confidence. At a time when much digital art seeks to impress through technological complexity or visual spectacle, Folds of Memory: Kebaya takes a different path. Its impact comes from careful observation, measured pacing, and close attention to material detail. Rather than dramatic movement, it is the smallest shifts that encourage viewers to slow down and look more carefully.
Some viewers may wish the animation lasted a little longer, simply because it invites sustained attention. At the same time, its short duration feels entirely appropriate. Rather than relying on technological spectacle, Chandra creates a work that rewards slow looking and quiet reflection. In doing so, she reminds us that textile traditions can continue to find new expression through contemporary artistic practice without losing their material and cultural roots.
Conclusion
Folds of Memory: Kebaya demonstrates how textile traditions can continue to evolve without losing their material and cultural foundations. Beginning with close observation of a familiar garment, Janina Chandra develops a thoughtful body of work that moves seamlessly across photography, stop-motion animation, sound, and installation, while remaining firmly rooted in the expressive qualities of cloth.
What makes the project particularly successful is not its use of digital media, but the way digital processes remain in service of the textile rather than overshadowing it. Memory is communicated through movement, repetition, and material behaviour, allowing the kebaya to become both a cultural object and an active participant in contemporary artistic practice. Ultimately, the project reminds us that tradition is not something fixed in the past. Through careful observation and thoughtful making, Chandra shows how a familiar textile can continue to generate new meanings within contemporary artistic practice.
As the opening review in CCD-NL Contemporary Craft Review, Folds of Memory: Kebaya reflects the kind of practice this series seeks to explore, artists who engage critically with craft, material culture, and living traditions while expanding their possibilities through contemporary forms of making, exhibition, and creative practice.
About the Review Series
CCD-NL Contemporary Craft Review is an editorial series featuring independent reviews of artists, designers, makers, and cultural practitioners whose work engages with craft, material culture, and living traditions. The series explores how traditional knowledge continues to evolve through contemporary creative practice across cultures.
About the Author
Julita Oetojo is a researcher specialising in Indonesian textile heritage, material culture, and contemporary textile practices. She completed her PhD at the University of Bonn, Germany, and currently serves as an Advisory Board member of Contemporary Culture & Development Netherlands (CCD-NL).
Images
All images courtesy of Janina Chandra. Reproduced with permission.
About the Artist
Janina Chandra is a London-based textile artist whose practice explores memory, materiality, and Indonesian textile heritage through photography, moving image, and installation.
Website: www.janinachandra.com
Next Issue
CCD-NL Contemporary Craft Review – Issue 2
Wax, Memory and Healing: Shuen-Li Spirit's Contemporary Batik Practice
The next issue explores the contemporary batik practice of artist Shuen-Li Spirit, examining the relationship between craftsmanship, memory, education, and community engagement.
Coming 25 July 2026!
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