Born in Calcutta in 1974 and currently based in Goa, Nikhil Chopra is a performance artist who focuses on subjects of identity, autobiography, and politics of transformation.
Deeply influenced by his Kashmiri identity, Chopra creates characters that are not fixed in time or space, not historically accurate, yet immensely real and endearing. As a performance artist, Chopra collapses the boundaries between theatre and several other artistic endeavours, including set design, costume and makeup design, and photography and video documentation.
The subject of this monograph is a series of durational performances by Nikhil Chopra revolving around Yog Raj Chitrakar, a character based loosely on the artist's grandfather. In the Yog Raj Chitrakar: Memory Drawing series which has been shown extensively around the world, he takes on the persona of a turn of the century Victorian adventurer, engaging in daily rituals such as bathing, shaving, dressing, eating and sleeping, going on expeditions and executing large-scale drawings from observation. Combining action, theatre, portraiture, landscape drawing and installation, Nikhil Chopra creates tableau vivants that explore the interconnections between political history, personal history and the history of representation. Artist biography included.
Artist monograph
2010
- Hardcover
- 144 pages, 11.25 x 8 x 1 in.
- 180 color Illustrations
- 6 b/w illustrations