02

Selvedge denim (backside) handwoven at Craft Denim
Spiral motif cut and sew
Floral motif and text, hand-painted with bleach

The back side of selvedge craft denim forms the base of this work. A spiral motif is cut and sewn into the surface, then hand-painted with bleach. The spiral recalls the form of a shell, a house one carries wherever one goes. For Nazif, it becomes a symbol of living in the in-between: between the Netherlands and the Moluccas. The process of decolonising becomes personal: a reclamation of making as reflection, and of fabric as language for undoing and reimagining the self.

The orchid, once central to Eliza van Zuylen’s colonial bouquet batik, is deliberately smashed. In its fragmentation, the work gestures toward unlearning inherited patterns: both aesthetic and emotional. Through acts of cutting, bleaching, and rewriting, it explores how generational trauma can be carried in silence and how breaking the pattern becomes an act of healing.