Arjun Rathi on the rise of art glass in India
- Art Featured
Schenelle Dsouza- 19 minutes read
Schenelle Dsouza
Mumbai-based architect and lighting designer, Arjun Rathi is a celebrated name within the design industry. His multi-disciplinary studio – Arjun Rathi Design, changed the way we look at lighting within our spaces. Using exploratory and imaginative approaches to design, Arjun Rathi Design aims to interpret a space through the lens of lighting that manages to inspire and capture one’s imagination. Yet despite its artistic inclination, the studio claims to be undefined by one particular style, but rather a practice that draws its inspiration based on the different contexts and cultural overtones associated with its surroundings.
As Arjun Rathi completes ten successful years in the industry, the designer talks to LuxeBook about his decade long journey in the industry and shares his thoughts on the development of the art glass culture in India.
From architecture to design
The beginning of Arjun Rathi Design, Rathi claims was a rather interesting one. The studio was initially incorporated as a traditional architectural practice in 2012, but was later developed into the design studio it is today. The decision to transform the company into a lighting design studio came after Rathi designed a lamp made from an upcycled Ambassador headlight, for a close friend’s birthday. “The lamp was very well received,” adds Rathi. “It even got published in a few magazines which gave me an opportunity to design my first custom lighting installation.” Rathi recalls the experience as a memorable one, supported by a hands-on experimentation with materials and designs. Soon enough the studio evolved into a customised lighting design studio with new lighting experiments that became more complex and installations that only got bigger.
According to Rathi his background in helped transform the studio to what it is today. “My background in architecture helped give me a different perspective while I designed installations specific to interior spaces.” His studio would apply the execution processes from both, the architecture and interior designing industries to their process of lighting design, which allowed the studio to manage projects while also collaborating with designers in India and internationally.
Over the years, Arjun Rathi’s studio has created some of the most remarkable designs, some of which are on display at places like Mumbai’s Lodha World Towers, The Lodhi in New Delhi, and even The Nutcracker restaurant in Lower Parel. And while these are magnificent creations, Rathi shares that it’s not the easiest process. “We have our fair share of challenges when creating these installations,” says Rathi. “A lot of our work is customised and designed on the fly to meet tight project timelines. It often involves designing something new and then figuring out ways to execute it; that is what drives us and keeps innovative. The process, thereafter, involves a lot of failed prototypes till we reach the desired structure and quality, which can often be tedious.”
One of his most challenging projects in the recent times, Rathi shares, was an installation inspired by Gulmohar trees; the project was executed for a banquet in Kolkata. “It covered an area of 1,300 square feet, with frames made from hand-casted brass, and over 150 art-glass flowers that were hand-blown, using colours inspired by the Gulmohar flowers.” The installation was a long and tedious project spanned over multiple lockdowns, and took over a year to finish. Nonetheless, the challenges to “…produce each hand-casted branch using unique moulds, and fabricating them in a modular manner…” was a strong learning process for the studio.
The art of glass
Although the studio experiments with different materials like metals and ceramics for its installations, glass is the key material used to create unique designs. “Glass as a material has existed for over 3000 years. Its versatility, long life, and recyclable abilities makes it quite useful in several industries including the interior and design industry,” says Rathi.
Over the years, the studio has been exploring glass as a medium of design while trying to find new ways to incorporate the material within the Indian design context. These include pairing it with different materials – some mainstream, some unique. “As a lighting studio, we work with a wide selection of materials ranging from metals and ceramics to acrylics and mouldable plasters, along with a variety of Indian crafts sectors and artisans, across the country. A majority of our work combines different materials and industrial processes together to make a product. For example, crafts like Channapatna, which were traditionally used for wooden toys, and Bidri, a casting craft traditionally used for making hand-etched vessels, are incorporated by designing the frame and details or entire fixtures using the traditional craft, giving the product a very unique look.”
The studio heavily relies on the use of glass for its artistic hand-blown glass lighting products and installations. Give the scarcity of glass availability in India, the studio was dependant on international imports. This posed multiple challenges for the studio during the lockdown in 2020 give the heavy increase in global logistics. However, looking on the brighter side, this scenario became a catalyst for the studio to launch the first art-glass studio in India. Partnering with Ismail Plumber, a glass artist and long-time collaborator with the studio, Arjun Rathi Designs launched the Rural Modern Glass Studio in Mumbai in 2021.
The Rural Modern Glass Studio it a unique space that explores the art of glass blowing among other glass production techniques that produce glass art, tableware, lighting, furniture, and accessories. In addition to creating masterful glass art, the Rural Modern Glass Studio hopes to encourage dialogue about glass as a design material. Owing to spreading awareness about glass design, the studio also attracting glass enthusiasts and people from within the design industry through interactive workshops and production support for custom glassware.
The glass studio represents as a space for experimentation and innovation to create new shapes and forms which can be used for installations in the future. As of now, the glass studio is used to develop and produce glass that is required for Arjun Rathi Designs’ products. However, the studio has also been opened to designers who wish to collaborate with the brand, giving them access to blown glass and all the tools needed to work with it. “Collaborations are key to the development of the studio as they bring new ideas which help us design and innovate better,” adds Rathi.
Making process
The glass blowing process might oftentimes come across as dangerous and complicated. However, Rathi compares the process to clay making stating its many similarities. “Working with glass is similar to working with clay-ceramics, but on a horizontal axis. And you obviously cannot touch the material due to the working temperature of molten glass.”
The set-up of the space, Rathi claims, is similar to those of most international glass studios. There is a melting furnace, which maintains a working temperature of 1,150 degrees Celsius, and is kept running 24/7. A majority of the tools are standard glass blowing implements, consisting of jacks and pliers, along with several shaping and sculpting tools, some of which are indigenously made by the artists themselves.
Coming to the techniques used in making the glassware, Rathi points out that it can takes years to master the art of shaping glass effectively. “Some artists spend their entire career, specialising and producing glass using techniques. To find the balance in our production design for lighting, we invite resident artists specialising in various glass techniques to up-skill our Indian artists and share their experience with glass allowing us to design new shapes and forms.” He further sheds light on the process, “Our current artists working on our pieces, have over 15 years’ experience working with the material, which gives them the necessary skill to create our works. For example, a standard 9 inch Bullseye candy glass module, with white base and black stripes, takes about 35 to 40 minutes to produce on the shop floor. After all glass is produced, it is put into an Annealer, a slow oven, which cool glass gradually to room temperature over 14 hours.
Glass is a material which retains all memory, any working mistake or error is always present in the final shape. Clear glass is infinitely recyclable but once colours are added it cannot be repurposed. Hence, it’s imperative to have experienced glass blowers working at the studio for production, as pieces must be discarded, and mistakes can rarely be corrected during the working process. “At our studio, broken pieces are either melted into glass bricks or accessories to generally give new life to errors in production. On the flip-side, when making glass art, mistakes and errors sometimes bring out new shapes and forms, which has been one of the most exciting parts of working with the material. We have been able to develop several new lighting installation modules through this process.”
New Collection
Post Covid in 2021, Rathi had an eagerness to produce an Indian inspired, pop-colour whimsical lighting collection. And so, he began exploring his nostalgia with Indian candies and desserts. As a country known for its rich culture, bright and vivid colours, a lot of their modern design shied away from it. “We wanted people to be overwhelmed with light and colour in a way they have never experienced it.”
The collection drew inspiration from Rathi’s emotional connect with food, and so he took colours, textures and shapes from some his favourite desserts across the country. The first edition of the collection explored five key series, The Candy, Bullseye, Paan, Motichoor and Chocolate; each of them exploring different materials, colours, textures and formats of lighting in a unique manner. The Candy and Bullseye series, inspired from pop-colour and striped Indian candies became the signature of the collection as it uniquely explored art-glass and in lighting, and customisable to be used across all formats of living.
Present and future
Arjun Rathi is known for his eagerness to experiment and create new forms and textures using glass, and so, the designer shared that he is currently working on exploring several new forms, colour patterns and textures in glass, hoping to combine it with their upcoming lighting installations. “We have a very interesting installation currently in production, inspired by Flying Peacocks; this is for a private residence in Hyderabad,” says Rathi. “The installation explores three flying peacock forms, made in gold plated frames comprising of over 1000 pieces of hand-blown glass.” The studio is simultaneously exploring programmable lighting for the installation, to give the client a unique experience with lighting formats. The installation will be assembled and built up over the next three months, at the new lighting gallery, located next to the Rural Modern Glass Studio.
