Kolkata: A 5.5-ft-tall representation of Goddess Durga is being created with recycled ballpoint pens at Tridhara Sammilani near Kalighat, one of the festive crowd-pullers in south Kolkata. Around 13,000 pens and refills will shape the installation of the goddess at the puja this year. After the festival, those pens will again be recycled into new pens for use.The installation is a dedicated artwork positioned alongside Tridhara Sammilani’s main Durga Puja idol and does not replace the traditional pratima. The principal idol will continue to follow the customary immersion ritual, according to puja organisers. The main objective of putting up this installation is to make people aware of plastic recycling, which can stave off environmental pollution.The artist of the installation, Chandra Nath Saha, said, “The interesting part of this work was taking something as familiar and functional as a pen. When thousands of pens are assembled together, their individual identity changes and a larger image begins to emerge. I want the finished work to hold attention first as an artwork, and then make people curious about what it is actually made from.”The pens used for the installation have been procured from the city-based manufacturer Linc. Deepak Jalan, managing director of the company, said, “For us, the significance lies not simply in the scale of the installation, but in the journey of the material, from a writing instrument, to a work of art, and back into a new product.”
