at their very first show in 2005 they served up art with spicy vodka little wonder that its been a heady climb up the art ladder for the dynamic cocktail of thukral tagra or tt as theyre better knownbe it briefs with safesex messages or hersheys bottles plastered with portraits of dreamyeyed punjabi lads the creative duo of jiten thukral and sumir tagra has blurred the distinction between high art and popular culture whacky and irreverent they may be but their work does have a message the two youngsters sumir is 30 and jiten 32 portray 21stcentury india as they see it says tagra people see cows on the street but they dont see the merc they see the slumdog but not the millionaire its this duality that will be one of the themes at their forthcoming show at the asia pacific triennal at the queensland art gallery in brisbane which opens in december its one of the largest contemporary art spaces in australia but that doesnt faze this twosome who have exhibited all over the globe they have shown at the frieze art fair in london the art basel in switzerland and participated in exhibitions from vienna to vancouver the duo who are quite unique in the fact that they work as a team even finishing each others sentences and making their wives quite jealous started their artistic careers in an advertising agency we redesigned the visiting cards with childhood photos of executives and even the ogilvy office in delhi next came the bosedk tshirts the term a punjabi swear word thats unprintable in a family paper like ours has become almost a brand they have even patented it its been so many years but people still ask us for the tees says thukral it was the tees that caught the attention of peter nagy who owns the nature morte gallery in delhi and gave tt their first break we have a room upstairs in the gallery and i told them do anything except burn the place down they went completely nuts and created an amazing installation covering all the surfaces of the space making a video for it and even a flavoured vodka to serve at the opening says nagy the show was sold out on opening day itself with the first sale fetching over rs 80000 since then tts prices have climbed steadily at the peak of the art boom in november 2007 one of their works somnium generoturbo a triptych sold for around rs 18 crore at a christies auction in hong kong their art has found favour with celebrity collectors too elton john went all the way to sydney to buy a work that was part of their somnium genero series british collector frank cohen has bought two mocktrophy busts of punjabi lads their underwear promoting safe sex however found no takers who wants to see someone elses face on their briefs says tagra but