Quarantine entails that we live in a certain isolation that, as social beings, we do not quite enjoy. It is almost debilitating, and makes most of us unproductive. Left to our own devices in the midst of a global pandemic, we have suddenly become hyper-aware of ourselves and how we choose to spend our time. It seems like a dead end with a looming void. But here’s good news. No matter how demotivated you are feeling right now, it might just be a good time to let the creative juices flowing if only you are willing to sit with yourself for a while. You will see that in the absence of any distractions, ideas might creep into your mind just like that. In fact, one can’t deny that it is during such times of crises that artists have created the most prolific masterpieces of their lives. It also helps if they can stay connected to fellow artists online to share their ideas before they can collectively blossom into something beautiful.
Let me introduce you to Sitara Chowfla from Pulp Society and Tarini Sethi from The Irregular Art Fair, who, in a creative effort to make the quarantine a productive and fulfilling period for artists, had come up with a unique zine art-game cum online exhibition called Ti(n)o /This is (now) online during the early weeks of the lockdown. Although zines have historically been associated only with subcultures, they have gained immense popularity in the last decade and can be found in even the most established galleries. This online zine is the result of a collaborative game played over three weeks by 78 artists, designers, writers, poets, and all kinds of makers who had been feeling isolated and creatively ‘stuck’ during the lockdown. Players worked together to make this hand-made magazine that includes images, text, illustrations and more. Ti(n)o consists of two games - Exquizine (a fast-paced game where a group of anonymous players each has 24 hours to create one page in the larger sequence) and Blind Date (a slower game where applicants were anonymously paired up to collaborate over a zine over the course of one week). It was developed as an extension to the planned Zine exhibition that was originally scheduled at Pulp Society in April 2020.
Players collaborated anonymously to create digital zines in groups, with the final outcome only revealed to all at the end of the project. The idea behind this initiative was to provide a creative impetus to artists during the lockdown by including them in a collaborative project that would foster a sense of camaraderie among them. This was especially important in the initial, uncertain weeks of the lockdown. No applicant was turned away, and the game was formatted such that even a completely inexperienced artist could contribute and be included in the project. One simply had to sign up to play the game, follow the instructions, and contribute their artwork!
The 16 zines created for This is (now) online explore a range of subjects and ideas, from ruminations on the state of Indian politics as expressed in Helf and Caree, a collaboration between Nirmal Ravisyam and Salil Parekh, an exploration of sexuality and queer subject matter as seen in Kumari and Salahuddin’s Intimacy and Incompatibility, or reflections on the absurd experience of Coronavirus that is expressed in Found at the back of the bookshelf.
The open, inclusive nature of this project attracted a wide range of participants, from established artists and designers, writers and poets and even some curators. Some of the players included Delhi-based DJ Pia Brar, curator and art writer Shaleen Wadhwana, veteran graphic designer Gopika Chowfla, up and coming Goa-based artists Nishant Saldanha and Avani Tanya, artist and organiser Kaur Chimuk, tattoo artist Shreya Josh, and designer/artist Hugo Pilate, among many others.
“It is what spurred us to turn the project into a fundraiser — if we sell just 20 copies of each zine for INR 500-1000 - we could potentially raise INR 2 Lac rupees! That is a great contribution by a lot of younger artists and makers who could not afford to have this kind of an impact if working alone. It is a reminder that if we work together and pool our resources - we can do a lot!” — says Tarini Sethi, curator, The Irregulars Art Fair
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