Choksi's production Still Abacus
One of the most private mavericks in the performing arts in India, Neha Choksi doesn't speak much, mince words or dilute her essence. Oh but when she talks to you, her sharp single-liners show you why words become redundant where the best of expression is concerned. Her work in performance, video, sculpture, photo, and hybrid installation explores how we seek, experience and acknowledge loss, growth, and transformations in material and psychological terms.
Choksi works by setting up simple situations and memorable interventions in the lives of everything—from a stone to a plant, from animal to self, from friends to institutions—disrupting logic to open a space for poetry, absurdity, surprise and existential insight.
In short, she gives me a deep understanding.
Define yourself.
I don’t believe in a single, invariable self. I am stubbornly, absurdly, amusingly, tragically an ever-changing group of one.
Describe your practice.
A tendency to disrupt the accepted.
“I don’t believe in a single, invariable self. I am stubbornly, absurdly, amusingly, tragically an ever-changing group of one.”
What inspires you?
Sunshine. Tender buttons. Television static. The usual.
Who do you become when you are performing?
I become me and we hold hands. come, let me hold yours, too.
Looking back at the last 20 years of your art, how has it evolved as you have?
I find myself making work that is less constructed and with more seepage, even if I continue to use the T-square and sponge.
Which one of your creations proved the turning point for you?
Recently I tried to copy my kindergarten classmate’s bold drawing in their usual abstract style. I couldn’t quite do it. I enjoyed trying.
“I find myself making work that is less constructed and with more seepage, even if I continue to use the T-square and sponge.”
What is the biggest challenge of being a performance artist?
Lack of stage fright.
What does your work in progress look like?
I am attending kindergarten this academic year as a student.
Text Soumya Mukerji