Arboretum – Ebb and Flow, oil on canvas is by Delhi-based artists Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
A glitch, once a simple digital error, has become a visual language in contemporary art — a metaphor for disruption or imperfection. The canvases at Mumbai’s Nature Morte have brought paintings titled, Arboretum – Ebb and Flow, oil on canvas, by Delhi-based artists Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra, together known as Thukral and Tagra. The collection of paintings by the artists respond to the relationship between the real and the digital world. The works in this exhibition draw inspiration from diverse landscapes, relaying stories on mobility, conflict, and the idea of home. The chinar trees of Kashmir, the peaceful landscapes of Japan, and the sense of belonging in Gurgaon where the artists live, seeped into the creation of this series.
Post-lockdown , the artists thought of freeing themselves from the idea of being confined to one place. Theirexercise took them to Japan, and they started wandering and documenting on the move. From the parks of Hiroshima to hidden gems in the Nezu Museum in Tokyo, they saw, felt, and soaked in as much as they could. They accessed Japan, Kashmir, and Gurgaon through the lens.
The artists hold several memories of walking on the dry fallen chinar leaves in autumn at Naseem Bagh.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Thukral says, “We made an archive of sites, time zones, and sensations registered on the virtual cloud, for future redressal. It also made us rethink our consumption patterns of landscapes. We recollect this instance from 2003 in Japan of experiencing the beautiful zen gardens created by master gardeners. Many images of the bonsai trees taken here were lost. The memory of these gardens remains stark to date, making us wonder if the ability to store in an external memory drive has challenged our cognitive abilities to remember.”
Despite being present everywhere, trees remain invisible to our eyes. Tagra says, “We are increasingly aware that forests are not just a collection of trees, but a community that is intelligent and harmonious. It is funny that this realisation about the immense capacity of our fellow companions on earth happened in the age of artificial intelligence.”
The artists say that they started seeing trees as cultural artefacts that witness social and political transitions of the world and their works in this exhibition draw inspiration from diverse landscapes, relaying stories on conflict, grounding the self, and the idea of home. We are retelling stories through the trees that stay in us, adds Thukral.
The artists hold several memories: walking through the Dachigam forest in Srinagar and drinking water from the natural waterfall. Collecting the charcoal made from dried chinar leaves from the bazaar at Masjid Dastgeer Sahib in Srinagar. Walking on the dry fallen chinar leaves in autumn at Naseem Bagh. “These 600-year-old trees have seen millions of people come and go, enduring centuries of serenity and political tensions,” adds Thukral.
The works in this exhibition draw inspiration from diverse landscapes, relaying stories on mobility, conflict, and the idea of home.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Being under the pine trees at temples in Uji, Kyoto, for them, was a meditative experience of nature. “It evokes our childhood memories of going on holiday in May every summer, connecting us to moments from the past. In our childhood, every house used to have a tree around, often in the courtyard. Next to my room, there was a bougainvillea shrub, commonly found in North Indian neighborhoods. The civic body uprooted the tree as it obstructed the view of police guards during the curfews of the late 1980s in Jalandhar, Punjab, a time marked by militancy,” shares Thukral.
A solo show of their paintings Arboretum – Ebb and Flow will be displayed at the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia, USA on September 26, 2024, followed by the curation of visual arts section at the upcoming edition of the Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa in December this year.
Arboretum – Ebb and Flow by the artist duo Thukral and Tagra, at Nature Morte, 3rd Floor, A Block, Dhanraj Mahal, Apollo Bandar, Colaba, Mumbai, Monday to Saturday from 11am to 7pm till October 12, 2023
Published – September 10, 2024 09:33 am IST