Joyride: Artist Chamim Marka rides around on his bamboo bike in Malang, East Java.

With a strong sense of politeness laced with mysticism, Malang artist Chamim Marka doesn’t bluster, brag or dismiss. He just contemplates — then does.

The bamboo bends but does not break. Zen Buddhists promote this ancient proverb as the image is familiar in the tropics during heavy weather.

The perennial evergreen grass that springs upright once the storms have passed is encouraging for those confronting crises and who like metaphors, though not for Malang artist Chamim Marka.

He is the sort of guy who thrives on clambering over thickets because success means gainsaying sceptics and naysayers.

How about working a piece of wood seamlessly so one piece fits into another? Here is the challenge: Make a fist-sized object, like a carved nut, with all sides showing symmetrical patterns.

Easy — though not if it has to be carved inside a piece of coarse timber that looks as though it has been devoured by termites.

Graduate upwards to weird contraptions where hooks and eyes are not separate attachments fitted together at some later date but created as the wood was carved. Difficult? Indeed. Impossible? Clearly not, Chamim’s art withstands the sharpest scrutiny.

Search for the glue line, and it is not there. It’s almost a standard feature of modern handmade furniture where the backboard and sides of a sofa have been carved separately and pieced together with heavy-duty adhesives and then lathered in black lacquer to hide the flaws.

“I like testing myself with difficulties,” Chamim said in a workshop decorated with serpentine shapes and curious contraptions that look as though they must have some practical purpose.

Such assumptions come not from the artist’s vision but the viewer’s expectation. Levers and legs, nodding shapes that resemble skeletal remains; there must be purpose. No, there must not, other than to interpret, as you will.

Chamim was working with timbers imported from Kalimantan up until the late 1990s. As supplies shortened, his concerns for the environment lengthened. In 1998, Chamim decided to work exclusively in bamboo — a commonplace multi-purpose plant that produces some of the hardiest wood.

He was making wooden bicycles, which is tricky. However, there were timbers bent by nature and readymade to dovetail with the artist’s imagination.

How to make a bamboo bike? They exist in Ghana though usually only the four straight pieces of the frame; the other parts are made from conventional materials.

Up close: Gapura Bentar gate is built as an entrance to local government offices in Karangploso, Malang in East Java.

Bamboo is light but strong and widely used as scaffolding on high-rise construction projects in Indonesia. It’s also far cheaper than aluminium and carbon fiber, the standard materials for high-end bikes.

Chamim wanted to make the whole bike of bamboo, apart from the wheels, rims and tires. Mudguards, forks, pedals and handlebars had to be bamboo. Now, that is a test and a half to bemuse the best and brightest.

Chamim solved the problem. The proof is in his workshop where seven bamboo bicycles await buyers at prices upwards from Rp 35 million (US$2,695).

Several of his bicycles have already gone to Europe, Japan, Australia and the US, said his son, Jouhan Jauhari, who studied at Yogyakarta’s prestigious Indonesian Arts Institute (ISI) and makes figurines for the US comic market.

“Dad’s self-taught,” he said. “His grandfather was also a carver. We believe his skills have been passed down over the ages from the men who carved the temples during the Majapahit period [late 13th century till early 16th].”

To prove it, Chamim has also built a Gapura Bentar (split gate) entrance to local government offices in Karangploso. In this suburb, 93 artists belong to a collective so the new building also has a splendid pendopo (open-sided meeting hall) behind the gate.

Although made of concrete blocks instead of quarried stone, the gate follows the principles of East Java temple design. Chamim has also won several public art commissions to build statues of famous figures from East Java’s classical history.

There were no blueprints for his new venture. Chamim said he tried bending bamboo over steam and flame without success. Instead, he resorted to forcing the bamboo to grow in certain shapes to suit his designs.

How he did this remains a trade secret but presumably the plant had to follow a hardwood or steel mold. A friend of his has a small bamboo forest some distance from the workshop where experiments are conducted.

Fortunately bamboo is one of the world’s fastest developing plants with some varieties recorded as leaping up to a meter a day. Yet Chamim reckons it takes about a year to get all the right curves to build a bike.

Chamim reckons he has covered 4,500 kilometers harvesting bamboo around East Java in the past six years.

If Chamim was pedalling through Europe or the US he would probably make innumerable sales. However, in East Java he’s just another oddball in a creative rural society where quirky characters abound are accepted.

— Photos by Erlinawati Graham

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