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.