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The Hindu
12-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Jenny Pinto's ‘Shades of Green' at Sabha Bengaluru
Settling down in the café adjoining the buzzing courtyard of Sabha, Jenny Pinto looks slightly bemused. 'We didn't expect such a huge success,' the designer says candidly. 'I'm quite overwhelmed by this.' Part of the reason could be the venue. A beautifully reimagined and renovated space dating back to the late 19th century — in its last avatar, it was a school — the exhibition hall, the auditorium and the courtyard serve distinct functions yet tie in well together when Sabha hosts a major show, like the Shades of Green currently underway. But it's more likely that the majority of the credit is due to Pinto herself: back in the 1990s, the city had taken her bright mind and innovative ideas under its wing, just as it would tech founders a decade later, and given her life a new direction by introducing her to handmade paper art. And as the tech sector would acknowledge, those that Bengaluru owns, it never lets go. At the turn of the century, Pinto was possibly the sole such artist in India. Today, her team of 70 has put together Shades of Green, a multidimensional construct of 'dialogue, discovery and design', the highlight of which is undoubtedly her paper art light installations. The 52-piece exhibition is as wondrous and surreal as it is tactile and practical. Surreal yet natural Bathed in the warm glow and deep shadows of the lights — floor lamps shaped like a star anise plant or an Illawara flower, pendant lamps inspired by a falling flame of the forest or a still cloud, table lamps that look like something collected from the sea floor — design students, young children, and their parents move about as if in an enchanted land, touching the fine folds of the banana fibre, the hard nailed lantana bark, the suspended rings made of industrial waste. Much of the design inspiration comes from Pinto's book The Magical Everything (2024), written to introduce middle- and high-schoolers to the environmental and climate crisis threatening the world today. 'My product design has always been abstract and organic,' says Pinto, 'and that was the brief for this exhibition as well. About 20% of the designs are new — the gulmohars, the coral tree, the clouds — while the rest have been showcased elsewhere, though never before in Bengaluru.' Consider the giant Victoria water lilies, towering over visitors in a room leading off the main exhibition hall. Softly uplit right where the waste copper wire stem touches the core of the flower, crafted from banana fibre paper, it is a silently transportive work, taking the observer into the depths of the river for a rare glance at the underside of the leaf. The paper, carefully creased into a large uneven circular shape, is as organic as the plant it evokes. Or take the suspended clouds, a fascinating balance of opaque paper and netted translucence, that manage to capture the non-corporeality of a lazy summer sky. The creases that characterise the water lilies fade away to smoothness here, interspersed with a loosely woven version of the same material. The early days It is no coincidence that Pinto's work simulates the natural world, using waste material to give back something beautiful and precious: her entire oeuvre, it could be said, is both a reaction and a response to the overconsumption and extravagance she witnessed — and admittedly encouraged, as part of the advertising industry in Mumbai in the years around liberalisation. Almost overnight, she says, she noticed trash build up in the city. And then, around the same time, she became a mother and 'suddenly, the problems became personal'. As part of her response, Pinto shut down her business producing and directing ad films, pulled up her roots in Mumbai and moved to what was still Bangalore and, perhaps most decisively, admitted her daughter at the J. Krishnamurthi-founded Valley School. The school offered her a kiln and a studio to work with — pottery was Pinto's creative interest at this point — till, one day, she wandered into a paper-making workshop, and immediately fell in love. Starting with recycling waste paper and then working with abacá, a species of banana, in a three-month stint with U.S. papermaker Helen Heibert, Pinto came back to India to begin the arduous process of establishing suppliers for her art. 'Only some banana fibre was used in rope-making etc, back then, the rest of it was mulched,' she recalls. 'Today [demand for banana fibre has shot up so much], it's an industry.' Showing up for responsible creation For the past two decades, Pinto has experimented with all kinds of invasive and renewable plants for her work, always mindful of sourcing, creating and producing to generate the least amount of waste. Besides banana fibre, which she is perhaps most well known for, she also works with cork, faux cement (made of stone quarry waste), lantana camara, water hyacinth (both invasive species), and banana bark yarn. While Pinto had always produced her work for the market, a turning point came in 2013, when Radheesh Shetty of Bengaluru-based The Purple Turtles, her principal retailer, offered her a partnership. Together, they launched Oorja, a sustainable lighting brand. The enterprise brought scale to Pinto's work, as the numbers swelled from about eight employees to the 70-odd today, including five designers. For all her success today, though, Pinto believes Indian art has barely recognised the potential of waste-born paper for its materiality. That will be her next frontier, she promises, taking up education on circularity and ecology, in schools as well as for design students. She also plans to bring the Paper Biennale — a recurring exhibition of international artists — to India in 2027. The time has come, she thinks, to turn the page on responsible creation. Shades of Green: A Week of Design, Dialogue and Material Stories is on at Sabha, Kamaraj Road, Bengaluru, till August 13. The writer and editor is based in Bengaluru.
The Hindu
11-08-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Oorjaa's sustainable lights illuminate various shades of green
Jenny Pinto wants more people to consciously support a movement towards circularity, a practice that aims to minimise waste and optimise the use of resources. 'All of us say, 'Oh, the fossil fuel companies or big corporations,' but eventually the consumer has the power,' says Jenny, who founded Oorjaa, a Bengaluru-based design studio focused on sustainable lighting, back in 1998. Raising awareness about these things is the raison d'être of Oorjaa's ongoing Shades of Green, a week-long festival focusing on design, dialogue and self-reflection to promote sustainability, which she hopes to make a biennale. From 'Songs of Nature', an immersive showcase of some of Oorjaa's lights inspired by the natural world, to workshops on paper and light making and panel discussions featuring some of the leading experts in the sustainability space, Shades of Green focuses on nature preservation, indigenous community engagement, slow living, waste management, carbon footprint, regenerative actions and material impact. 'I wanted it to be a festival that talked mainly about the circular economy… basically bringing anyone even remotely involved in green design on a platform,' says Jenny. The festival also saw the launch of the Live Lightly Foundation, a new initiative which seeks to develop educational material, create platforms for dialogue and incubate innovation in the areas of circular thinking, regenerative design, material literacy and mindful consumption. 'The journey with Oorjaa was a huge learning experience,' Jenny explains, adding that her decision to work with waste when her studio started led her towards getting involved in issues like solid waste management and sustainable transport in Bengaluru. We currently need a more holistic approach to address the environmental problems, she believes, adding that we are already feeling the consequences of living in a world besieged by the climate crisis and the AI revolution. And it is up to us to change that trajectory, she says. 'I'm hoping that the foundation can bring together people who are thinking about things like this and work together towards making a change.' At the exhibition In a small room, leading off an exhibition hall at Sabha Blr, where Shades of Green is being held, a swarm of jellyfish-shaped lights gleam against a luminescent aquamarine background. Look closer, and you will also see that ocean debris in the form of lost fishing nets has been woven into this collection of lights, titled Aurelia, which, like many other pieces in the exhibition, is made of handmade paper from agricultural waste, in this case, banana fibre. Other aquatic lifeforms have inspired the 'Songs of Nature' exhibition, including a light made of copper wire and banana fibre paper, which captures the ethereality of a lily pad, as well as those shaped into gleaming leopard sharks, sea urchins, sting rays and sea sponges. There are also pieces, which pay homage to terrestrial life—gulmohar blooms, the coral tree, star anise pods and coconut flowers made from an eclectic array of materials, including the invasive lantana, banana fibre, copper wire, varnish and graphite dust. All these pieces are an attempt at material exploration, as Radeesh Shetty, the founder of The Purple Turtles and Beruru and co-founder at Oorjaa, puts it during a walkthrough. Radeesh, who joined Oorjaa with Gaurav Raj, says this is the first time the studio has collectively showcased many of these products in one space. 'What you are seeing here is a culmination of design, which has been done over the last two and a half years or so.' While some of these pieces have been taken to other exhibitions in Mumbai, Delhi, Dubai and Ahmedabad, this was the first time they were shown in Bengaluru. Also, some of the lights are new designs, 'including the big flower, inspired by the gulmohar, the clouds, and many designs in the main hall.' Outcomes and more At a panel discussion with various city-based ecopreneurs, titled 'Sustaining a Sustainable Business', another crucial question was raised: How does one scale a sustainable business? It is challenging, concur Radeesh and Jenny, drawing from their own experience at Oorjaa to further expand on this. For starters, there is a considerable investment when it comes to material explorations, says Radeesh. 'A lot of time gets invested in designs that don't see the light of day. People don't realise how much work goes into the back end. For each design you see, there is a huge exploration that you don't see, and there is a huge cost to it.' Additionally, since the pieces are handmade, it takes time. 'If tomorrow, I have an order for 500 pieces to be delivered in a couple of months, I have to say no. Even the paper-making process… if we replace it with a machine, we can do what we do in an entire month in a day. But the output is very different,' he says. Oorjaa, which sources its raw materials from farmers, tribals, fisherpeople and NGOs, also believes in the concept of Wabi-sabi, the Japanese philosophy of finding beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and the natural cycle of growth and decay. 'We want people to accept imperfections in a product. It requires a mindset shift,' says Radeesh. Jenny goes one step further, expanding on why this mindset shift needs to go beyond just the products on display. 'A product like ours is less than a drop in the ocean in terms of environmental impact, but we try to use them as part of our awareness-building.' In her view, it is also essential to change the way we look at business itself. 'Scalability is a corporate, capitalist way of looking at things. We need to change the expectation and definition of it. ' You end up increasing the carbon footprint of your product and compromising on your core beliefs if you grow too fast, she believes. 'These are things that need to be thought through and redefined as we go along.' Shades of Green is being held at Sabha Blr till August 13
Fashion Value Chain
29-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Fashion Value Chain
Oorjaa's ‘Songs of Nature' Lights Up Sustainable Design
Shades of Green invites you to experience Songs of Nature, a unique design showcase by Oorjaa, from 8th to 13th August at Sabha, Kamaraj Road, Bangalore. Open from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm, this week-long event highlights Oorjaa's celebrated lighting creations, crafted from natural waste and rooted in conscious design. Known for transforming materials like banana fibre, lantana, cork, and granite dust into sculptural lighting, Oorjaa brings together signature pieces and a new collection inspired by the quiet intelligence of nature. But Songs of Nature is more than a design display—it's a space for dialogue and reflection, bringing together artists, designers, and sustainability thinkers. Visitors can take part in talks, panels, and hands-on workshops, all centered on exploring the purpose and impact of creative practices. The event seeks to foster a deeper understanding of material intelligence and circular design—questioning how we make, why we make, and how our choices shape the world around us. Jenny Pinto, Founder and Design Director of Oorjaa, shared, 'Songs of Nature is a chance to pause and listen — not just to ideas and conversations, but to the deep, often invisible systems that shape our material world. We hope it sparks curiosity, care, and a renewed sense of connection to how and why we create.' Set within Sabha, a restored 160-year-old colonial school, the event combines heritage architecture with contemporary sustainable design. It invites guests to experience lighting not just as decor, but as poetry made tangible—expressing the values of care, craft, and environmental responsibility. Step into Songs of Nature and discover how conscious creativity and natural materials can illuminate both spaces and minds.
