Kolkata artist Chandra Nath Saha created a large Goddess Durga sculpture using around thirteen thousand plastic pens and refills for the Durga Puja festival. Displayed at Tridhara Sammilani, the installation blends art, tradition, and sustainability. It encourages visitors to view everyday objects creatively.
What do you get when 13,000 plastic pens come together? In Kolkata, the answer is an unusual sculpture of Goddess Durga that brings art, tradition and sustainability together in one striking installation.
Created by Kolkata-based artist Chandra Nath Saha, popularly known as Tilak, the 5.5-foot-tall sculpture was displayed at Tridhara Sammilani during this year's Durga Puja celebrations. Made using approximately 13,000 Pentonic pens and an equal number of refills, the artwork gives everyday writing instruments an entirely different purpose.
Check the post here:
The sculpture measures around 4.5 feet in width and three feet in depth. It stood alongside the pandal's main Durga idol as a separate artistic installation, offering visitors a fresh take on one of Bengal's most cherished cultural symbols.
For Saha, the challenge was to turn thousands of familiar objects into a recognisable representation of the goddess without losing the artwork's visual appeal.
“The interesting part of this work was taking something as familiar and functional as a pen and asking what else it could become,” Saha said. He explained that when the pens are assembled in large numbers, their individual identities fade and a larger image begins to emerge.
The artist also wanted people to appreciate the sculpture as a work of art before realising what it was made from.
What makes the installation particularly interesting is that its story does not end when the festival does. Unlike the main Durga idol, which follows the traditional immersion ritual during Visarjan, the pen sculpture will be dismantled separately. Its plastic components are intended to be recycled and processed into new products.
The idea offers a practical message about reusing materials that might otherwise be discarded. It also shows how contemporary artistic experiments can find a place within a festival steeped in tradition.
By transforming thousands of pens into an image of Goddess Durga, Saha has created more than an unusual festival attraction. The installation encourages visitors to look at everyday objects differently and consider how recycled materials can be given another life through creativity.
Once the celebrations end, the pens will begin another journey, returning to the recycling process rather than being immersed with the traditional idol.
