The talk of dreams leads to nostalgia and the two recall their first meeting — when Thukral ragged Tagra in college. Tagra was standing in the queue at the Chandigarh Art College, waiting to apply for a course there. Thukral, who was a student at the college, walked up to him, pretending to be an applicant. Few years on, the two met again at the Delhi College of Art and friendship struck, giving form to the moniker ‘Bosedk’ in 2003. “It happened over drinks with friends. We thought of designing stuff together. It sounded fun,” recalls Tagra. The Bosedk factory has since then been churning tees with funky one-liners riffed on Punjabi abuses and had even collaborated with Benetton for a collection.   

They were introduced to the world of canvases by Peter Nagy, who held an exhibit of Bosedk vinyl wallpaper and shirts stuffed in jars, in his gallery Nature Morte. After the exhibit, the connoisseur urged them to paint their thoughts on boards larger than those they had been working on. They not just heeded his advice, but have also moved on to working with different mediums and on varied themes, many of them with social relevance. They’ve tackled consumerism, for instance, by creating mock malls with shelves stacked with fake products and paintings with quirky titles like “discontinue use if irritation occurs”. They’ve also attempted to exhort safe sex through the exhibit “Put It On” at New York’s Bose Pacia gallery.  

The duo’s efforts have paid off. In November last year, their canvas, Somnium Genero, was sold for Rs 1.5 crore at Christie’s sale of Asian Contemporary Art in Hong Kong. “We are happy with the response but one needs to note that the auction prices are not real market indicators,” observes Thukral matter-of-factly.  

... contd.