Travelling through Asian and Pasifika cultures in batik with Rozana Lee

20 years ago, artist Rozana Lee lost her mother, relatives, childhood friends and her family home in Aceh, Indonesia in the Boxing Day Tsunami. More than 200,000 people died in Indonesia, her mother Rosna among those left unaccounted for. Lee’s father Karimun survived. 

At the time Rozana Lee was living in Singapore, working as a banker and had just given birth to her first child. The tragedy led to a huge life shift. She left Singapore and her established career to focus on her art and her family, moving to Aotearoa with her New Zealand engineer husband, where she began fine art training. 

Today Rozana Lee has built a successful practice for herself, with a solo exhibition at West Auckland public gallery Te Uru last year and further solo showings currently on at City Gallery Wellington and Corbans Estate Art Centre in Tāmaki Makaurau 

Rozana’s background has led to work that explores the connections through patterns and symbols between the cultures of central and South East Asia, Pasifika and Central America. Working with Indonesian Batik textiles, her work explores the way a culture evolves, not just from one community’s traditions but through its interaction with others. This is a reflection of her own experience of prejudice and the movement of culture in trading ports.

At the time of the tsunami, the Lee family still ran a fabric shop, which she lived above growing up.  A trade in pattern and colour has always been part of her life.

Further, while Lee is fourth generation Chinese Indonesian, it’s a country where the Chinese are still not accepted. Growing up her family weren’t allowed to learn their language or use their family name. When she left home she lived in Jakarta at a time where Chinese were being severely persecuted.  

Last year Lee was able to expand her cultural interests in fabric further after being selected to participate in The Zhelezka Project: On the Tracks Through Central Asia. This saw her spend two weeks on mostly Soviet-era trains with 20 other researchers and artists, travelling across three countries of the Silk Road trade route: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

Lee has an installation as part of Memory Lines at City Gallery Wellington until 30 June, and exhibition Windows to the World at Corbans Estate Art Centre until 27 April.