The Sixth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

174 Thukral and Tagra Dream merchants Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra offer a seductive and vibrant take on contemporary Indian society and culture. Witty and colourful, Thukral and Tagra’s refined aesthetic is applied to painting, sculpture and installation, as well as graphics, interiors, fashion and product design, often under the provocative label, Bosedk. 1 Their structured approach gives their projects a high level of detail, finish and accessibility, with themes researched and developed over time, and made adaptable to specific concerns and contexts. Coming from a generation of Indian artists for whom ‘transcultural experience is the only certain basis for contemporary artistic practice’, 2 Thukral and Tagra’s work ranges freely across many forms and references, while maintaining a distinctly local perspective. Thukral and Tagra’s ongoing series, ‘Effugio/Escape’, is inspired by a particular aspect of Punjabi society in which young people, particularly men, are encouraged to move abroad. While wandering and migration are longstanding in Punjabi culture, emigration accelerated during the second half of the twentieth century through increased global demand for labour and more relaxed immigration policies, particularly in the West. Local ‘push factors’, such as the 1947 partition of India, political instability around Operation Blue Star in 1984, growing modernisation and the decline of the rural economy, contributed to this trend; 3 along with persistent cultural forces, such as the high status bestowed on those who migrate and, by extension, on their families at home. Evidence of this is the Punjab’s massive industry of education and migration agencies, leading, for instance, to the increased presence of Indian students in countries like Australia. 4 Both of Punjabi background, Thukral and Tagra began to document and analyse this situation around 2003, linking it to broader shifts in Indian society. Drawing on personal experience, interviews with young men, as well as their observations of rampant urban development and consumption throughout India, the artists have constructed a hallucinatory image world of hyped-up aspirations and burgeoning wealth. Glossy paintings, fashionable clothing and shelves bursting with packaging fill their installations, which are often configured as retail or domestic environments. Adolescere Domus , their 2007 display at the Basel Art Fair, depicted a teenage bedroom hung with portraits of Punjabi ‘homeboys’ and included furniture, clothes and other consumer goods. Each item featured the artists’ signature motifs of flowers, trailing vines and invented logos. While the work reflected the shiny new consumerism of the subcontinent, Adolescere Domus also played up to the heady excesses of the Western art market at the time, which had then recently expanded to include contemporary Indian art. Thukral and Tagra’s work for APT6 comprises an imaginary living room, dominated by a large, dreamlike painting of baroque buildings, inspired by those being built across India. With their pastiche of European styles, these fantasy villas and apartment blocks reflect the desires of the growing middle class, yet are thoroughly unsuited to the local climate and ignore the richness of India’s own architectural history. The inner and outer walls of the room are lined with portraits of young men who have left home to pursue a supposedly better life overseas. In the centre, an enormous table rises from the floor like a plane taking off, while two empty chairs indicate the parents left behind. Family is at the heart of Punjabi society, and house and land ownership is of paramount importance. Although having children abroad promises social prestige and regular remittances, it also fragments the family unit and risks serious economic repercussions, not least because the funds to support emigration are often raised by selling property at home. 5 The gravity of Thukral and Tagra’s subject matter is conveyed with directness and humour, reflecting empathy for their subject, while their desire to communicate is facilitated by alluring design and the ‘dream factory’ approach of advertising. For example, their 2007 exhibition, ‘Put It On’ addressed the spread of HIV/AIDS in India with the printing of logos and slogans encouraging condom use onto designer underwear, rubber thongs and bed linen. As curator Trevor Smith noted: Thukral and Tagra take their role as cultural entrepreneurs seriously. For them, the marketplace is not simply a site of economic exchange but exists as a forum for the contestation of cultural values. 6 Rather than observing consumer culture from a cool, comfortable distance, Thukral and Tagra are utterly immersed in it, turning its fervent language to their own ends. As in the commercial world, images and objects are carriers of information, speaking broadly across borders at the same time as appealing to us directly, as individuals. Russell Storer Endnotes 1 ‘Bosedk’ is an Anglicised version of a colloquial term of abuse in north India, with differing nuances depending on region. 2 Ranjit Hoskote, ‘Signposting the Indian Highway’, in Indian Highway [exhibition catalogue], Serpentine Gallery/Koenig Books, London, 2009, p.193. 3 See Gurharpal Singh and Darshan Singh Tatla, Sikhs in Britain: The Making of a Community , Zed Books, London, 2006, pp.26–42. Operation Blue Star was the name given to a military operation organised by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi against the Sikh separatists gathered in Amritsar’s Golden Temple. It was a flashpoint in a long history of tension between Sikhs and Hindus, and resulted in a series of anti-Sikh riots. Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards four months later. 4 Following a spate of attacks in Melbourne and Sydney in recent months, the situation of Indian students in Australia (in 2009, around 90 000) has received unprecedented media and political attention in both India and Australia. See Sushi Das, ‘Repairing damaged ties’, Age , 29 August 2009. 5 Thukral and Tagra, interview with Russell Storer, 3 June 2009, Queensland Art Gallery Research Library artist file. 6 Trevor Smith, in Thukral & Tagra , Nature Morte/Bose Pacia, New Delhi/New York, 2007, p.40.