There is a nightlight that never goes out

Heima x IdKids suggest tabletop solutions to spice up your boring space.

In trying to decipher what Heima’s project is about, I got lost in the seemingly illusory description of the art. 

Specialty lifestyle and furniture store Heima has embarked on another creative experimentation, this time collaborating with artists Nice Buenaventura and Owel Alvero of IdKids to create pieces that stretch the borders of design and function.

The result: two charming creations that turned seemingly trivial and functional inanimate objects into interesting pieces of art. The collaboration is called “Tabletop Solutions/Home Remedies/Folk Cures,” and introduces pieces Skala and Babel. If you’re looking for a new, affordable art piece slash not-so-ahhrt-piece to invest in, this would be it.

Skala is a nightlight shaped like a cabin, but the nightlight is made in reverse (as in the light doesn’t come out of the windows of the cabin). The piece is constructed with lightweight fine bone china material. Having been dubbed as “the lamp that puts other lamps to shame,” Skala is the anti-nightlight that would not be a shame to switch on at night.

Meanwhile, Babel is a collection of hand-painted wooden blocks that allows you to build and deconstruct as you wish. The intention of Babel is to “reclaim the inherent power of the wooden block as a primary unit of construction.” Babel of course serves its purpose still as “eccentric paperweights for the apartment-bound creative,” it’s better than the generic rock you use in your office desk.

“The collaboration title is like solving a fraction by getting to the lowest common denominator” says IdKids. “‘Tabletop Solutions’ has an I.T. crowd techspeak vibe, ‘Folk Cures’ feels shamanic or aboriginal, and ‘Home Remedies’ is sandwiched somewhere between both extremes. All of these mean the same thing — basic problem solving.”

I can only assume that the idea of problem-solving came to be because the pieces were made with the objective for them to really have purpose. Stripped of all flowery description, it is after all still a lamp and a paperweight. But Heima and IdKids have taken it to another level, by integrating design aesthetics and creative conceptualization.

“Too deep for home décor?” they question. “Yes,” I’m thinking in my head, while wiping my metaphorical nosebleed. Though while the new products seem pretty simple to ingest, Skala and Babel actually went through more over-thinking, overanalyzing, and over-creating than we can imagine. “The collaboration took a lot of time, deep thought. Prototyping, revisions, and constant discussions, sometimes being minimal takes a lot more,” says Rossy Yabut and Bong Rojales of Heima.

So in conclusion, let me spell it out for you. Heima and IdKids have created very cool paperweights, and an adorable nightlight that you won’t find anywhere else. But more than that, they are, in themselves, pieces of art. “Their (IdKids) aesthetics is very unique in the local art scene. Of course we wanted to introduce their brand through home décor,” says Rossy. What Heima is able to do here is translate the aesthetic of IdKids, and produce things that people will be drawn to and more importantly, relate to. Heima in effect attempts to translate to mass consumers the sentiment of design and art, by creating things we are more familiar with in everyday life. They work well too.

I remember an artist once telling me that he was upset because pieces of art today were just purchased like they were pieces of furniture. Does this piece go with my curtains, or right beside that Ikea couch? But in the issue of the line between art aesthetic and function, IdKids believes that things, whether they were handcrafted by a craftsman, or mass-produced in a factory, just radiate certain energy to people. “There are items we buy from stores and thrift shops, not because we need a unicycle for example, or an old school coffee percolator, but because we like the way they look or the way these items make us feel. There’s a certain energy that manufactured objects radiate. Sometimes these objects just resonate with you, and you have to have them, and then they function as modern-day talismans.”

If we’re going to buy things that work anyway, we might as well make sure they’re pretty.

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All items exclusively sold at Heima. Drop by to see the sneak peek of the new collection and the interior lay out curated by Heima at LRI Design Plaza in Makati.