Game for Verbal Kabaddi, anyone?
Updated On: 17 April, 2015 08:30 AM IST | | Ashmak Maity
<p>Artist duo, Thukral & Tagra draw from the Dr Bhau Daji City Museum's collection of ancient and traditional games including Ganjifa cards, and Kabaddi in their exhibition, Games People Play</p>

Q. How do you derive a similar artistic expression for all of your works? How is the creative process divided?
A. By now, we've been working for 12 years together. So its easy, because we know what the other wants to do even if its not articulated. So, if one decides, the other follows and it constantly keeps evolving. We have been following this process for a while, and it's a sort of natural process. It happens in sync with the other, like driving in a rally, where one has the map and the other drives.
Narasimha, a painting in brass, on display
Q. Could you shed some light on your exhibition Games People Play?
A. The project started as a simple idea. We were supposed to respond to the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum's collections, as artists. While we were there, we had so much of information and the artifacts were so fascinating! We started looking at it and took the ideas ahead. Then, we spotted a set of Ganjifa cards. They are very old, one of the first versions of playing cards, probably from the late 17th century. They had images of gods on it and people used to play those cards for days. This instigated an idea of a relation between God and games; more importantly, the social aspects of such games. For instance, who determines that cricket should not have six balls? So, we researched on questions that were never raised. It seemed interesting, as that dimension had not been explored.
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