Thukral & Tagra present ‘and Archive’ at the India Art Fair

The artist duo’s new interactive series encapsulates their practice as one of the most eclectic in Indian contemporary art

The art of Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra, or Thukral & Tagra, as the duo is known, is entrenched in journeys—journeys of ideas, media, personal beliefs and history. These journeys become compelling because of their idiom, one that is transcendently pop-visual but rooted in difficult social realities. While they are immersed in the socio-cultural pulse of Indian society and its shifts and quagmires, their artistic signature is something ineffable—although recognisable—because they don’t have one chosen medium. They see their work as a fluid exchange between art, design and immersive installations. Graduates of the Delhi College of Art, Thukral and Tagra use their Punjabi roots to express concerns of Indian life and society. Theirs is an eclectic brand of Punjabi baroque that will resonate as much with Gen Z as any discerning, seasoned art lover.

The annual India Art Fair, which began in New Delhi on 28 April after a gap of over a year, showcases Thukral & Tagra’s new work titled and Archive, an interactive project designed to retrospect, and which takes note of the time, documents, sketches and writings, of their careers through both realised and unrealised projects. “The space offers a visual marathon that disseminates knowledge as therapeutic in the form of publications, book works and game editions,” says a representative of the India Art Fair 2022.

Addressing a gamut of issues

In the largely static and pedantic area of cultural material, Thukral & Tagra’s playful works have taken on issues such as migration, mythological narratives, symbols of Indian identity, diaspora existence and motifs of a globally manifested consumer culture. From a pop-visual character to a predominantly abstract visual approach and compositional philosophy, Thukral & Tagra have been constantly shifting in their grammar and vocabulary in the last 20 years that they have been practising in Gurgaon. They use videos, diptychs and suspended canvasses with motifs such as pinball machines, hot air balloons and flying houses. Their pop-visual language is beguiling exactly because of their thoughtful engagement with the world around them. They both come from family histories of print shops and art-making, and those influences reflect in their processes, practices and subjects. The works and subject matter have been evolving ever since; there is an increasing emphasis on inclusivity, gender and the communities at risk.

and Archive, which was launched on April 28 at the IAF Studio, is a collection of interactive books and games that distill their knowledge and perceptions about a range of issues relevant to the post-pandemic world: It introspects on nature, climate change, the agrarian crisis, debts, suicide, hopelessness, rejection and shrinking unemployment, while inviting viewers to interact with the works. They say, “These projects and processes develop and evolve over time with sensitivity to surroundings or social environment beyond our existing processes. We already live in uncertain times, where sailing through it becomes the silver lining. A lot of iterations walk in during these times, as we critically approach the final stages of the project.” They add that the good time about the pandemic has been that it gave them time to reflect on things from a distance. “It is nice in a way because a lot of vantage points arise in this process, along with constant diverging and converging too,” they say.

Pushing the boundaries

Similar in their multi-media process to one of Shanghai’s most exciting contemporary artists, Xu Zhen, implicit in Thukral & Tagra’s inspiration as artists is the belief that artists can change the way people think. In most works, such as the games and books of and Archive, they mock themselves as gleefully and purposefully as they critique technology and media hype, peeling away the façade of social status and modern living through paintings, installations, games, video, books, sculpture, performance and design.

Thukral & Tagra have had solo exhibitions at New Delhi’s Nature Morte, Mumbai’s Chatterjee & Lal and galleries in Seoul, São Paulo, Hong Kong and Berlin. They are at work for projects that will be shown this summer in Istanbul and Mardin in Turkey as well as in Sydney, Australia. They say their mandate as artists is to build audiences. “Engaging and sharing ideas about what art can do really expands the understanding, but the art enthusiast is always looking for things that push the boundaries,” they share. “The world is changing rapidly, and art mirrors time. The works and subject matter have been evolving ever since we started; now there is an increasing emphasis on inclusivity, gender and communities at risk.”

India Art Fair will take place at the NSIC Grounds, Okhla, New Delhi from 28 April to 1 May, 2022.

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