LONGING FOR TOMORROW

From a pop visual character to a predominantly abstract approach and compositional philosophy, Thukral and Tagra constantly change their vocabulary. The abstract suggestions of an everyday experience of architecture and urban design in Gurgaon and Chandigarh is embedded in their visual language, offering a sociopolitical commentary that is implicit in their aesthetic for the past fifteen years.  The three-year project started in 2011 at a residency at the Meissen porcelain factory, as part of their art campus programme. Over fifty works were produced with three overlapping narratives. Somnium Genero, Escape, which is built upon the values, desires and dreams of the Punjabi community and Flight, which reflects on inner flights of imagination. Using Meissen’s rich archive and sources, the entire work is conceived with playful manifestations and assumptions. It attempts to make the material more approachable by illustrating the daily struggles of the contemporary and seeks to be both eternal and fragmentary in nature.

JITEN THUKRAL and SUMIR TAGRA work collaboratively with a range of media including painting, sculpture, installations, interactive games, video, performance, and design. Eschewing a mediated narrative, they seek to expand the scope of art through multi-modal sensory and immersive environments and new formats of public engagement. They have held solo exhibitions of their work in New Delhi, Berlin, Mumbai, New York, Seoul, Singapore and Beijing. Their work has been included in many group exhibitions, including at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Essl Museum, Vienna, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, and Centre Pompidou, Paris, among many others. They have been commissioned to create several works around the world.

www.thukralandtagra.com