The Pixelated Mirror: How Thukral & Tagra are Mapping Our Digital Shadows

An immersive exhibition at Ashvita’s new Mylapore home explores the blurring lines between our physical existence and our relentless online data trails.

Before you’ve even rubbed the sleep from your eyes, your phone has already curated your morning. There’s the ping of a notification, a suggested video, or an invite to a local event, all arriving with a precision that feels almost intrusive. We live in a state of constant translation, moving between the natural yellow light of the sun and the harsh, blue-white glare of our screens. It is this friction that Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra address in Mimesis, their latest exhibition currently on view at the newly inaugurated Ashvita’s space at Ozone Premia in Mylapore.

The exhibition is an extension of the duo’s ongoing Arboreum project, which tracks the collapsing distance between our natural environment and our hyper-digital lives. While Arboreum looked at biological ecosystems, Mimesis turns its gaze toward the digital architecture we inhabit. For five years, the artists maintained a conceptual diary they titled Coded Gaze, documenting how technology has become so seamlessly woven into the mundane that we often mistake a person’s pixelated, curated Instagram life for their actual reality.

A Gallery That Feels Like Home

Ashvin E Rajagopalan, the director of Ashvita’s, has envisioned this new space as a hybrid—a bridge between a clinical gallery and a lived-in home. The goal is to allow visitors to experience art in a domestic setting, rather than viewing it behind cold, sterile glass. "When somebody comes here, they get to see a museum-quality show and an extremely well put together space in which art can live," Rajagopalan explains.

Inside the gallery, the paintings feel like a visual manifestation of a data breach. The canvases are dominated by geometric forms that mimic enlarged pixels and digital interfaces. These aren't just abstract shapes; they are interpretations of the codes, databases, and surveillance trails that define our modern identity. By placing these works in a home-like environment, the artists force a confrontation: if our homes are now filled with these digital ghosts, where does the human voice end and the algorithm begin?

Why It Matters

The significance of Mimesis lies in its timing. We are currently living through a generational shift where the "digital shadow"—the accumulation of our search histories, location pings, and social media interactions—has arguably become more visible than our physical selves. By translating these invisible data streams into tactile, geometric art, Thukral and Tagra aren't just commenting on technology; they are documenting the loss of privacy and the transformation of human memory into something that can be stored, sorted, and sold. This show is a necessary pause in our frantic scrolling, asking us to consider the cost of the convenience we’ve grown so comfortable with.

The exhibition remains open to the public until July 17. It serves as a stark reminder that while we continue to feed our digital selves, the gap between the screen and the skin is shrinking faster than we realize.