Eames, the Eames, and Herman Miller

We recently had the privilege of hanging out with Eames Demetrious, grandson of legendary designers Charles and Ray Eames. For those who don’t know, The Eames’s changed the world through their designs. It’s almost guaranteed that everyone in the modern world has encountered an Eames design at some point in his or her life.

Eames Demetrious, head of Eames Office and an artist in his own right, was stopping through Jakarta in conjunction with the launch of the new book 100 Quotes by Charles Eames and an exhibit of his grandfather’s photographs. Herman Miller, producer of the Eames furniture, organized the exhibition at O House Gallery. We were very excited to see the selection of photographs in person, and be able to talk with Eames about his personal connection with them. One image that we particularly liked was a self-portrait of Charles and Ray’s reflection in the window of their case study house.

Eames ended his visit with a lecture at Aksara bookstore in Kemang. A small but dedicated crowd turned out to meet him and learn first hand about the history behind the family and business. He told great stories about visiting his grandparent’s house as a child, his first camera (given to him by Charles), and Charles’s friendship with designer, Eero Saarinen. Even though Eames was there as an ambassador of the Eames Office and Herman Miller, we had a chance to speak with him privately about his own work as an artist and film maker. You can check out more about his various projects here and his parallel universe here.

Eames speaking at the exhibition opening

Our favorite quote from Charles Eames

Herman Miller asked us to show our chair in the exhibition

Self portrait of Charles and Ray

At Aksara

Indoneisan Architect, Han Awal

Eames signing a photo of Han Awal's son with the House of Cards

Star-struck!

Furniture expo in Jakarta

The idea of a furniture expo in Jakarta usually makes me think of handicrafts and batik everything. Although 90% of the show was exactly what I expected, I was extremely surprised by the feature pavilion's focus on contemporary Indonesian design. Alvin Tjitrowirjo, Jakarta's best young furniture designer and friend of ours, blew the competition away with his range of sleek, modern pieces. Even the dramatic exhibition hall interior was designed by the progressive local architect Andra Matin.

Main entrance to the exhibit

Alvin T. in his fiberglass and leather Snug chair

"Soiree" modular bench (Alvin T.)

Wooden Radio by G Mango

Hejfina Showroom

Our friends over at Hejfina recently opened a furniture boutique called Hejfina Showroom. The showroom focuses on beautiful, clean lined furniture and home accessories that utilize natural materials. Several of the featured designers are locally based and have become Chicago icons. Hejfina showroom offers ready-made pieces and custom design service. Check out some photos from the website...

Carson Maddox

koehler.design.build.


F2

Our first post: A weekend in Jakarta, Indonesia

Friday:

We started the weekend at TOIMOI shop in Kemang for a group art show. Toimoi is an interesting little store that focuses on trendy local and international product design. They recently extended their shop to include a nice gallery that features several young artists.
We really liked the unpretentious feeling of the space (a rarity in Jakarta), with its high walls, loft for storage, and modest office tucked away in the back.

The group show “Fringes, vol. 1” is a collection of paintings and drawings from various artists that will be showing here regularly in the future. Overall, the show had a lot of eye-candy and was really fun to look at. The works were very playful, and it was obvious that there was a lot of creative energy surrounding the show. This type of event needs to happen way more often in Jakarta. It seems that youth culture here is hungry for creative outlets and eager to express themselves.

We moved on to a weekly party run by my brothers (in law) called TURN ON PLASTIC at Centro. Hard to believe their 11 years anniversary is coming up soon. Hope to see old friends at the anniversary party.


Saturday:

Our day was suppose to revolve around the Jakarta Intl Film Festival, but we wasted movie tickets and did other things instead.

We tried Blenger Burger in our neighborhood. It’s a successful local burger joint created by a group of young guys. I’m pretty sure they got the idea for their special sauce from In & Out Burger in California. Strawberry juice was a delight for the hot afternoon. My Blenger experience was spoiled while I was waiting for our food when my friend told me on the phone that they microwave the burgers inside Styrofoam boxes. Sure enough, I saw them do it. She kept telling me “Microwaving Styrofoam causes cancer. Don’t eat there. Be careful!” Who knows? I guess one time won’t hurt.

In the afternoon, we caught a brief fashion show for the launch of EDWARD HUTABARAT’s fashion photo book. The event took place in a very odd location. It was in a Kinokuniya bookstore inside a mall. My sister, Amalia, took us there because she’s been a fan of his work. Hutabarat uses Javanese batik prints applied to contemporary dress silhouettes that are just great. I was excited to see well-designed outfits that are not all fancy and embellished. It’s just about good design. The book is beautiful but over-designed, so I decided to not buy it. I’d rather save my money for Edward’s dresses. Can’t wait to see his new boutique in Kemang Icon.

After the event we met up with well-known furniture designer, Leonard Theosabrata He’s probably one of the most successful product/ furniture designer in Indonesia right now. Everybody here knows his “Accuputo” chairs (www.accupunto.com). Cool guy and smart, too. He gave us the 411 of design in Indonesia. Hopefully we’ll be working with him in the future.

We asked about cataloging artists and designers in Indonesia. Who’s doing it or is it even happening? Both my sister and Leo answered passionately, “ Nobody!” They said maybe the British Council but they don’t really have the capability to handle the scale of work. But why are they doing this job? Shouldn’t the Indonesian government do it?

Around 8 or 9 pm Burger Blenger took revenge on Chris’s stomach. Oops! We had to rush home.

Sunday:

Chris woke up tired and pale. I am waiting for my turn, but so far I’m fine.

We wanted to go shopping for old furniture pieces like legs or just a tabletop, so we headed to Ciputat area. There are rows and rows of shops selling reconditioned antique furniture and various parts (if you ask). We checked out the first row and found a big bowl made from one piece of wood for $9 US. You can also find furniture from the Dutch colony era, Art Deco to Mid-century modern.















In the evening, we caught a Japanese movie called “ A Stranger Of Mine” at JIFFEST (www.jiffest.org). It’s a simple, well-written comedy that tells the story of one day from the perspective of several intertwining characters. This movie definitely makes me think of others like Pulp Fiction or Memento, but much lighter though.

So… That was our eventful weekend in Jakarta. Our future posts probably won’t be as long. We’ll be sharing stories of our other travels and miscellaneous things that interest us.
Thanks for reading,
C+C