Artist Bimo brings glory of color to tableware

Artist Bimo brings glory of color to tableware

By Mehru Jaffer

JAKARTA (JP): Only a few years ago Bimo Chondro was just
another employee in a bank.

Then his colorful past returned to haunt the young Sundanese.

Colorful childhood secrets that were piled up inside his
mother's cupboard and in the rainbow-colored clothes that she
wrapped daily around her sinewy contours knocked around in his
imagination constantly.

As a child nothing had fascinated him more than to look, touch
and feel the different materials that belonged to the family.
Later he found himself mesmerized by the way in which Indian
weavers and dyers made attractive patterns on textiles and
combined their use of imaginative color combinations.

For a while, colors were forced to disappear into the deep
recess of his subconscious as practicalities took over and Bimo
prepared himself for the ways of the world. After graduating from
a school for hotel management he soon found a job in a bank. Bimo
was well paid but surprised at how restless he was. Perhaps what
bothered him was the absence of colors in his black and white
life at the bank.

"But I am too much of a coward to give up my regular job,"
grinned Bimo.

Instead he decided to entice colors back into his life after
office hours, and what he has ended up accomplishing is to
transfer on to canvas all the different shades that he remembers
seeing on textiles.

One day he took his works to Amalia Wirjono, owner of Koi
Gallery, who happily hung up two of his paintings on her walls.
Bimo was encouraged by the fact that within a few days both the
paintings were sold. That was in 1996.

Yet another break came two years ago when the Hilton hotel in
Central Jakarta renovated its popular Peacock restaurant and
chose Bimo to design place mats and coasters. One of the guests
of the newly opened restaurant was Allan Theo from Metro
department store.

Allan was absolutely charmed at the decor that evening and
searched high and low for the designer. When he found Bimo he
wondered if the artist would like to use the same colors on
crockery.

Bimo recalled that his conscience was trying to tell him
something at that time. He wondered if he was commercializing his
art, and peddling away his intense love for colors in the crude
corridors of the market place? Then he rationalized that it was
not as if he painted just for himself. He did feel happy at
the thought of sharing his creations with as many people as
possible.

Price

The price of his paintings was now on the rise and few from
the masses could afford to buy one of his canvases. He thought
many more could fulfill their love of possessing a piece of art
by buying one of the 600 salad bowls exclusively designed by him
and available at a more affordable price.

So he accepted Allan's offer to design 16 pieces of tableware
including a tea set, dinner set and a salad bowl in four vivid
colors; orange, yellow, green and blue. Research within the
department store revealed that young upper middle class
Indonesian customers liked to use ethnic colors and
shapes as tableware instead of the more demure white and off
white shades, so popular with Europeans.

After that it took nearly two years for 16,000 pieces to be
duplicated, colored and fired by Lydia Kusuma Hendra at her
factory in Tangerang. And just before the end of the last month,
coinciding with the end of Ramadhan, the Bimo ceramics were first
displayed at Metro.

Few could have foreseen the excellent reception for Bimo's
wares.

Customers have gone crazy at the possibility of bringing so
much color into their lives. Since the post-fasting month Idul
Fitri holiday was soon approaching, many ordered Bimo hampers and
sent them as gifts to family and friends.

"To drink coffee in one of these cups first thing in the
morning is to remain cheerful for the rest of the day," uttered
one customer who returned to buy some more Bimo ceramics as a
gift for her mother.

What makes Allan most proud is the fact that Indonesian
pottery has at last come into its own, after playing second
fiddle to ware from China, Europe and the United States.

Bimo's line of tableware is truly Indonesian. "It is
conceived, born and marketed here in this country,"
says Allan, who is now on the lookout for an appropriate batik
motif to put on the next line of crockery he wants to fire for
his customers, who are increasingly appreciative of the idea that
art need not be just decorative but functional as well.