KARACHI: ‘Creativity with Flowers’, an evening of floral demonstration by Harijanto Setiawan, and organised by the Study Group of Floral Artists at a hotel here on Monday was like being surrounded by beautiful flowers in a garden in spring.

An architect by training, the Indonesia-born Harijanto is based in Singapore where 14 years ago he founded Boenga Pvt Ltd, a floral designers’ company lending its artistic vision at numerous events in Singapore besides being the floral consultants for many hotels in various countries. His creations have won him many international awards.

Upholding Singapore’s title as a ‘Garden City’, Harijanto is not your usual florist or floral designer. He has changed the image and perception of floral design as his arrangements are nothing like your regular dining table centrepiece in a pretty vase or a bouquet that you can carry in your arms or present to anyone. They are big decoration pieces that make statements and are better suited to change the mood in long corridors and roomy halls where seeing an arrangement you are forced to stop and admire and appreciate beauty.

He is an artist. His arrangements are pieces of art. He gathers inspiration from all quarters. A spiders web, leaf texture, glass and cotton ... even tissue paper can inspire him into creating a masterpiece. Blessed with the ability to think out of the box, he has even spun his magic around live people, dressing them in flowers.

The demonstration on Monday, where he did 13 very different arrangements, was just a glimpse of his kind of art that incorporates all mediums and materials such as charcoal, glass tubes, bulbs, torches, cotton, felt, yarn, wires, ropes and strings.

Harijanto does not stop at just flowers. Give him twigs, creepers, straw, bamboo, dried wood, leaves, pine needles and grass. Then hold your breath as the artist gets to work. And when he is done you can’t help but sigh at the magical effect created by him. “Flowers speak a common language — love,” he said at the conclusion of his two-and-a-half hours demonstration. This is how you say it with flowers.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2016