BIG BANG BATIKS

What does the beginning of everything look like?
Nikahetiya’s work investigates the emergence of complex systems through the interplay of memory, material, and pattern. Rooted in early experiences in Sri Lanka — observing leaves, streams, and star-filled skies - his practice translates visual and cognitive patterns into a tangible form, connecting personal recollection with universal structures.

During a 2023 residency at the one world foundation (owf) in Sri Lanka, Nikahetiya engaged deeply with the traditional Batik studio led by Ms. Anoma Malkanthi Mendis. Batik had been part of the visual landscape of his childhood, yet revisiting the medium revealed new dimensions. One of his earliest memories, his father’s red Batik sarong, became pivotal. It was not the motifs themselves that resonated, but the intricate, seemingly random networks of cracks surrounding them. Generated through the interaction of wax and dye, these fissures revealed patterns both chaotic and ordered, delicate yet structurally coherent.

Observing these formations, Nikahetiya recognized analogues in neural pathways, mapping connections in the brain, and in cosmic structures - the filamentary webs, clusters, and voids of galaxies captured by NASA and the Hubble Space Telescope. Each crack became a frozen trace of dynamic forces: tension, heat, and time converging to produce a singular, unrepeatable moment. The fractures operate simultaneously as records of material history and as visual metaphors for emergence, connecting intimate memory, material process, and the architecture of the universe.

In his compositions, the interaction of wax, dye, and fabric captures this convergence. Pigment spreads through fissures and stabilizes in unpredictable yet coherent patterns, forming landscapes that echo the formation of galaxies, the growth of neural networks, and the structures of natural systems. Chance, material response, and attentive observation act together, revealing complexity from simplicity.

This series condenses decades of fascination and four years of experimental exploration into a coherent visual language. It demonstrates how traditional craft can mediate contemporary investigation, materializing phenomena at scales both personal and cosmic. Through Nikahetiya’s Batik works, the microscopic and the astronomical are linked, revealing emergent order from randomness and the enduring patterns that connect memory, matter, and structure.

Acknowledgements
With gratitude to Ms. Anoma Mendis and the Batik team — Ms. Niluka De Silva, Ms. Nishanti Liyanage, Ms. Daisy Irangani, and Ms. Champika De Zoysa — as well as Prof. Kathrin Messner, Mr. Prabath Wijesekara De Zoysa, Ms. Xiane Kangela, Ms. T. Jenita Raji De Silva, Mr. Ronnie Jaklitisch, and the entire owf community.

Large work (center): Formation I

250 x 250cm

Pigment, dye, wax on sarong cotton

Smaller work (left): Formation II

150 x 150cm

Wax on sarong cotton