{"id":36383,"date":"2010-03-27T11:26:40","date_gmt":"2010-03-27T11:26:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.tehelka.com\/?p=36383"},"modified":"2010-03-27T11:26:40","modified_gmt":"2010-03-27T11:26:40","slug":"the-man-behind-the-lipstick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/the-man-behind-the-lipstick\/","title":{"rendered":"The Man Behind The Lipstick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why is performance artist<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>Nikhil Chopra<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>more famous internationally than in India, asks<\/em>\u00a0A<\/strong><\/em>astha Atray Banan<\/strong>
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Photo: Tina Lange<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nIT\u2019S A good thing that Nikhil Chopra is a dandy. Being stared at all day would make feebler mortals quaver. In his latest act, \u201cDrum Solo\u201d, the performance artist became a star drummer boy at Chatterjee and Lal, transforming the Mumbai gallery\u2019s white interiors into a black lounge. For five hours daily, from March 15 to 19, Chopra thrashed a drum kit to an inch of its life \u2014 with no intention to make music: \u201cThat\u2019d make it less interesting. Making sound: now that\u2019s what matters,\u201d grins the 35-year-old. \u201cI\u2019m working with an idea unknown to me. I\u2019ve never been so loud! But it does what\u2019s necessary: amplify improvisation.\u201d<\/span>
\nMortimer Chatterjee of Chatterjee and Lal, which also hosted Nikhil\u2019s works in 2007, says, \u201cPerformance art draws a wide cross-section of people \u2014 regular gallery goers, people from the film and theatre world and art students who want to see new practices. In \u2018Drum Solo\u2019, Chopra is playing a celebrity rockstar, and there\u2019s an element of danger, as this concept could fall flat on its face. It could also be a critique of the acknowledgement an artist gets.\u201d He wryly notes, \u201cUsually, art shows only get covered if there was a great party along with them.\u201d<\/span>
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Beatless Nikhil Chopra\u2019s \u201cDrum Solo\u201d piece had him thrash a drum kit for five hours daily
Photo: Deepak Salvi<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nA performance artist creates a \u2018living picture\u2019 by inserting himself into still and video backdrops. The method first became popular internationally in the 1960s with artists like Yves Klein and Yoko Ono, but it\u2019s still new for Indians \u2014 which might explain why Chopra is more famous outside India than in his native land.\u00a0The New York Times Magazine<\/em>\u00a0has called Chopra\u2019s performances \u201cenchanting\u201d, theChicago Art Magazine<\/em>\u00a0described how \u201che held power\u201d over his audience, and London\u2019s\u00a0ArtReview<\/em>\u00a0listed him among their 30 most important emerging artists in March 2009. But Nikhil is certain that Indian audiences are dying to welcome something different. As art critic Nancy Adajania says, \u201cHe has been an exception to the malaise of complacency in the Indian art world.\u201d<\/span>
\nChopra entered the world of performance art during his MFA at Ohio State University, when the Punjabi boy from Jammu invented a character called Sri Raja. For a performance called \u201cSri Raja III at Khowaja Press\u201d, he sauntered through Delhi\u2019s walled city in regal costume towards an Urdu printing press. His other success was with \u201cYog Raj Chitrakar: Memory Drawing\u201d, which follows a Victorian draughtsman. He shaved off all his body hair publically, even performing as a drag queen.<\/span>
\nSometimes during a performance, Chopra confesses, he does ask himself, \u201cWhy am I here?\u201d Audiences, he says, \u201cwant to keep the illusion alive as they want to enter an artist\u2019s world. I don\u2019t look at them but through them. After a while, they become comfortable to stare at me freely, and then suddenly I am an object.\u201d<\/span>
\nFor Chopra, the best thing about his works could be how he gets to live out his dreams: \u201cI have license to do anything and be anyone. I once got supremely drunk! I also got to play drums, which I\u2019ve wanted to do since I was a kid. I was a rockstar for just that moment. Now, ain\u2019t that a great feeling?\u201d Might be better to ask: sounds like teen spirit?<\/span>
\naastha@tehelka.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why is performance artist\u00a0Nikhil Chopra\u00a0more famous internationally than in India, asks\u00a0Aastha Atray Banan IT\u2019S A good thing that Nikhil Chopra is a dandy. Being stared at all day would make feebler mortals quaver. In his latest act, \u201cDrum Solo\u201d, the performance artist became a star drummer boy at Chatterjee and Lal, transforming the Mumbai gallery\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":36396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[5725,5993,6077,6088,6089,6090,6091,6092,6093,6094,6095,6096],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36383"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}