COBA / COBA
COBA/COBA
Plastik Kembali, 2025
Creative Philosophy
Read COBA/COBA here
About
In Bahasa Indonesia, the word for “try” is “coba” (pronounced cho-ba). This word – “coba” – became the Plastik Kembali mantra when artist and Plastik Kembali founder, Elissa Gjertson, moved to Lombok, Indonesia in 2018 and saw her new community littered with plastic waste.
Originally from the United States – hailing from a small town in northern Minnesota with Scandinavian roots – Elissa’s appreciation for traditional art & craft was revitalized in Lombok, inspiring her vision of merging recycled materials with global folk art traditions.
Elissa gathered a team of local artisans, sharing sketches, samples and prototypes of her ideas, alongside plastic pieces collected from the village. Drawing on her familial background in traditional fiber crafts such as weaving, knitting and crochet, she engaged the new team in realizing her vision of reinterpreting plastic waste through the lens of her cultural heritage fused with traditional Indonesian artistic methods.
When experimenting and discussing viability of a new artistic technique or idea, Elissa’s new team would never answer with a straightforward “yes” but instead would reply with a smile and say: “Coba! Coba!” – meaning, enthusiastically, “We try! We try!”
Today, the word “coba” has evolved into a core creative philosophy at Plastik Kembali – expanding into the very idea that, in order to make a difference in our world, we must simply try.
Each letter, C / O / B / A, stands for a tenet of the “COBA” philosophy – Curiosity, Openness, Bravery, Adaptability – and each concept builds on the previous idea.
The goal? To rediscover our own, personal creative potential and find new ideas that help make the world a better place.
Writer Anne LaMott once remarked, “The opposite of faith is not doubt; it is certainty. ” At PK, it is well known that creativity itself requires us to let go of certainties. It asks to have faith in the unknown, to imagine what ‘might be’ vs. what ‘already is. ’ In short, creativity asks us to try. It asks us to “COBA, COBA!” – every single day.
Learn More About COBA/COBA
PK founder, Elissa Gjertson, is available for speaking engagements centered on her philosophy of COBA / COBA. Contact @nyamangallery in Seminyak, Bali at +62 813 4031 9860 for more information.