The Glassblower Fanning Modern Curiosities
Fascinated by the remarkable skills of Firozabad glass artisans, designer Arjun Rathi has been focusing on prospects of the glass-making industry in India, his recent work include installation at Mumbai’s World Towers and many glinting restaurants in Mumbai.
Firozabad district in Uttar Pradesh is also called as the city of glass and is known for its glass-making industry. Arjun Rathi’s new glass-blowing studio invites Indian craftsmen to his new glass-blowing studio as he celebrates the 10th anniversary of Arjun Rathi Designs.
Playing with lighting and glass for over a decade now, his noticeable installations include the glitzy entrance hall of Mumbai’s World Towers,many social spaces from The Lodhi in Delhi to the Lower Parel outlet of The Nutcracker restaurant in Mumbai.
He hosts a weeklong exhibition showcasing his designs from the last decade, and is focusing on the future with Rural Modern Glass–the glass blowing studio he co-founded with glass artist Ismail Plumber in 2021.
Recently, he inaugurated a new space adjacent to the studio which will double up as a gallery where visitors can browse through his latest lighting collections, place orders, and get a peek into the design process.
The exhibition showcases his new collections of lighting–which include Bauhaus, Sugar and Shikhara to mention three. Of these, the Sugar collection was developed at Rural Modern Glass, and points to the future of his practice.
The colours, the shapes—we have full scope for experimentation now.” The first experiment developed at Rural Modern Studio was the Sugar Collection, inspired by classic Indian candies.Besides this there are other lamps made with hand-blowing to create bespoke light objects.
His entire project draws inspiration from rural India, from Indian culture and makes modern objects out of it. All of the resident artists come to the studio with shared interest. Rathi is excited about the studio’s ability to foster experimentation. Earlier, designs would be shared with factories overseas to incorporate contemporary designs.
