A row of flower-themed paintings fill the room in Petoran hamlet, Solo, Central Java. Suyadi, 36, who is the artist who painted some of them removed one from its frame. "This painting is not for hanging, but is to be worn as a headscarf or as a piece of clothing," he told Tempo last week. The material stretched across the frame was not canvas, but rather a length of cotton.

Suyadi is an artist from the Nasrafa Cloth Painting Studio. Besides severa