Bengaluru techie’s refill art goes to Milan

Having a keen interest in architecture since childhood, he started making miniatures in 2008

Sreenivasulu M R, an IT professional, has a unique interest in miniatures. He loves creating them from pen refills. Now, these miniatures have garnered attention and will be on display in Milan, Italy, soon.

As part of the upcoming Milano Design City, being held between September 28 and October 10, Sreenivasulu’s miniatures will be exhibited there. He is one of the finalists for Rossana Orlandi Plastic Prize 2020.

Having a keen interest in architecture since childhood, he took forth his passion and started making models in 2008.

“I constructed a miniature of Eiffel Tower in eight months. There are many artists in the world who make miniatures of famous structures from various materials like paper and wood, but I wanted mine to stand out,” he says. Pen refills are one of the most ignored forms of plastic. “I wanted to educate people about the 3R’s — reduce, reuse and recycle. My works were meant to promote art out of waste and motivate people to think out of the box,” he says.

The process of making these involved a hunt for refills and segregating them on three parameters — completely white, partially white and refills that require detailed cleaning.

“They are then grouped into different sizes. There are no tools used at any stage; I use only refills, adhesives, paper and mini cutter.” His works also include a miniature of the Big Ben that took a month to complete and Golden Temple, Amritsar, that took more than two years. “Over 13 years, I have created 10 miniatures including Eiffel Tower, Paris, Charminar, Hyderabad, Taj Mahal, Agra, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy, Gateway of India, Mumbai, Seattle Space Needle, USA, Sydney Harbor Bridge, Australia and St Philomena Church in Mysore,” he adds.

He is considering Belur temple and Hawa Mahal, Jaipur as his next project.