Gameplay with an Artistic Heart
2030 Net Zero. Photo courtesy: Thukral and Tagra
Thukral and Tagra’s new and upcoming project titled “and Archive” is a unique collection of interactive artistic books and games that drive key messages of social and environmental consciousness.
As a group of women belonging to the Indian agrarian community, one can often face overwhelming odds. Statistically, a farmer in India commits suicide every forty minutes. Burdened by overdue debts, all-female cultivators battle with daily trials and tribulations. Some of them may have lost all hope, some may have rescued themselves, and some will take odd jobs for survival.
In the project Weeping Farm, the player is confronted with these estranged lives, as one shadows the life of a female farmer for a whole year, undergoing and negotiating some of their life situations and scenarios. Whichever card you may play, you will have to make attempts to survive—which is the ultimate objective of this game.
At large, “and Archive” as space offers a visual marathon that disseminates knowledge as a therapy in the form of book works, prints, objects, and games. As well as being tools of art pedagogy and social awareness, the book works and gameplays are both disruptive and playful.
Jiten Thukral, one of the designers of this art and gaming project, says, “The debt, policy failure and climate change are pushing the families into extreme distress. Women farmers in particular bear the severity of this grave concern. ‘Weeping Farms’ is an urgent response to this agrarian crisis.”
And there’s more. With the challenges of nature, climate change, agrarian crisis, debts, suicide, hopelessness, rejection and shrinking employment complicating the lives of many, the artists duo of Thukral and Tagra (Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra) have attempted to bring these issues to our heightened attention in today’s times with their project “and Archive”.
“and Archive” features a series of games and books that have been carefully designed to assure sustainability and to promote environmentally-conscious products by using all handcrafted and eco-friendly materials. “With almost 20 years of studio practice, we have worked collaboratively to expand the scope of what art can do through paintings, sculpture, installations, games, performance and design,” say the artists behind the project, “Our studio oscillates between social design/intervention and art practice guided by interactivity, empathy, and aesthetics.” “and Archive” games and books were set at display at the India Art Fair recently held in New Delhi.
The artists have conceptualised their collaborative ‘Pollinator.io’, an interdisciplinary lab which is an agency that seeds fundamental debates through intangible value systems. “With the evolving times, pollinators intend to diversify our peer ecosystem through cross-pollination,” says Tagra, “Through the first project ‘Collection Bureau’ in 2017—in collaboration with Prayas Abhinav—we tried to critique the process through which the value of a work is formulated and established in the art context. As Pollinators, we believe that we are all part of one ecosystem. Communities cannot operate in isolation; hence, the projects are designed to facilitate and inspire dialogue within communities in order to revitalise or defragment them.”
Thukral and Tagra
A duo known for connecting public engagement with art, Thukral and Tagra aim to disseminate value-based knowledge around a range of themes/issues, across all generations. “By this we mean that how can we as artists through an empathetic approach question the status quo yet offer hope, through the act and metaphor of games,” Tagra adds. “These art projects through the medium of games are a great conversation starter. Games have proven to be an immersive way that can be used for serious subject matters yet stays engaging.”
Specifically, “and Archive” is a collection of artist-made book works, independent publishing, hosting processes, proposals, and ideas. This is a window to artists’ decade-long studio practice which allows the reader to appreciate the process of artmaking. It provides access to the experience of visual poetry, monographs, research, and proposals. At large, “and Archive” as space offers a visual marathon that disseminates knowledge as a therapy in the form of book works, prints, objects, and games. As well as being tools of art pedagogy and social awareness, the book works and gameplays are both disruptive and playful. They enlarge the scope of their art practice and deepens the art’s relevance to the current systems of public engagement.
“We wanted to expand the ideas of publication, allowing partnerships, participation and further to build new audiences. As we constantly explore the mediums and bring the issues at the forefront. Games as a medium of art making, allows us to playtest with audiences like never before,” says Tagra.
Some of the key books that are part of this project include the iconic Weeping Farm, 2022 that reflects the Indian agrarian crisis and focuses on aspects like food insecurity, privatisation and debt. Likewise, one of the games, 2030 Net Zero is a game that tries to explore the greenhouse gases that are added to the atmosphere each year. The objective for the participants of the game need to bring the emissions down to net zero. All the games have been carefully designed to promote sustainability and environmentally-conscious products, using handcrafted and eco-friendly materials . Material for game production has been consciously sourced; the source used in the box to project the components is actually made of recycled old clothes, such as T-shirts and garments. No plastic is used to conceive the game pegs, cards and the paper used for cards is FSC certified paper. Even the packaging used for shipping is felt-based.
Additionally, the show features a concept called Somnium Semnibus, a visualisation of a reverie. The project attempts to construct a fact-sketch: a derivation of what a lucid dream would look like. The series revolves around exploring the idea of a journey, both inwards and outwards. “We have long been painting dreams, always returning to the notion of space as constantly exploding and free-flowing,” says Tagra. “We try to expose a tension between bubbles of surreal vision and our carefully-stored memories. Our dreams are continuously fueled by our aspirations and yearnings. The Somnium Seminibus series is a continuation of our botanical inquiries from the last five years.”
Weeping Farm. Image courtesy: Thukral and Tagra
This began as an exercise of ethnobotanical research and a humble approach to illustrate over 60 floral species found at the Rani Bagh Botanical Gardens of Mumbai, flatlands of Delhi, highlands of Himachal Pradesh, and regions of Ladakh. “The compositions that emerge enables an intrinsic thinking about our coexistence with nature and matter around us,” Tagra explains. “This symbiotic relationship drives us to interrogate their origins, which are embellished and enriched through mythic stories, histories, and folklore.”
With a project like this that has different manifestations of art, the focus has been to bring art closer to people. “Different art forms engage people differently, with room left for their own ambiguity to walk in, however they like to imagine certain elements. The games as artworks ideally engage audience/viewers, culturally, historically, socially, by appreciating their use of material and sensitivity,” Tagra adds.
Looking ahead, the duo will be participating in the upcoming biennale in Sydney and Mardin in the summer months, and continuing to establish “and Archive” with their team.
Quiz them about the challenges behind executing an unusual project like this, and Thukral and Tagra admit that these projects develop and evolve over time with a sensitivity to surroundings or social environment beyond our existing processes. “We already live in uncertain times, where sailing through it becomes the silver lining,” says Tagra. “A lot of iterations walk-in during these times, as we critically approach the final stages in the project.”
***
Bindu Gopal Rao is a freelance writer and photographer based in Bengaluru. She is passionate about all things to do with the environment. You can follow her on Instagram @bindugopalrao.
