Old Woman of Batak

Tchang’s portrait of this Batak elderly woman (likely from the Lake Toba region in Sumatra, Indonesia) is unflinching - capturing her with weathered skin and boney frame, bare-breasted and without a hint of self-consciousness – she holds our gaze with a discernible equanimity. Tchang’s detailing of the headdress, attire and local textile (in the cushion she is resting on) and the wild boar (the animal associated with the Bataks) fleshes out the scene and the highlands environment.