Engaging Bodies

Date - 5 Nov 24

Time - 6.00PM - 7.30PM

Location - KNMA Saket

Join us for a conversation session between the artist Neha Choksi and the theatre director cum lighting designer Zuleikha Chaudhuri about their long-term engagements with the idea production of space, body, materiality, performativity in their respective practices. The conversation is part of the ongoing exhibition The Elemental You.

The exhibition The Elemental You initiates a critical dialogue among the works of three artists: Simryn Gill, Neha Choksi, and Hajra Waheed. Featuring substantial bodies of work from each artist, the exhibition begins with an exploration of the element ‘Earth’ as a geological, cultural and material experience. For decades, the three artists have engaged with rocks, stones, sand, plants, trees, fruits, light, animals and other beings as subjects and materials for their work, focusing on their multifaceted relationship with the natural world.

A central part of the exhibition is The Working Space, that features two special projects, first is Samba Shiva: A Coursework by Vijai Maia Patchineelam presents a personal and geographical narrative based on the life and work of his father, geologist Sambasiva Rao Patchineelam, exploring themes of family, land, and memory. Another project, 5-4-3-2-1 by Ranjana Dave, is a participatory movement installation based on the artist’s hiking experiences, inviting visitors to explore the body’s relationship with its surroundings.

The Working Space also holds Artists’ Roundtable, which is not actually round in shape but dedicated to research and collaborative projects, including artist interventions and public programs exploring themes such as fieldwork, memory, and care for the Earth. The exhibition invites reflection on humanity's profound relationship with Earth and the natural world.

The Speakers:

Neha Choksi

In work across and beyond performance, moving image, and sculpture, Neha Choksi probes lived experiences that negotiate relationships in unconventional settings. Harnessing stone to plant, animal to friends, publics to philosophy, Choksi’s materially bound art engages the terms of our existence in ways personal and planetary. Choksi's work has been widely exhibited in the United States, Asia, Australia, UK, and Europe for nearly three decades. Exhibition venues include the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Delhi; Dhaka Art Summit; The Box Gallery, Los Angeles; Galerie Barbara Thumm’s New Viewings, Berlin; Kleefeld Contemporary Museum, Long Beach, CA; Various Small Fires, Los Angeles; Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Manchester Art Gallery, UK; Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles; Hayward Gallery Project Space, UK; among others. Her work has been discussed in various publications, including in Artforum, Art in America, Frieze, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Art Asia Pacific, Take on Art, and Art India. Choksi lives and works in Los Angeles and Bombay.

Zuleikha Chaudhari

Zuleikha Chaudhari, a theatre director and lighting designer, creates performance-based installations exploring the dynamics of performance structures, the actor’s role in truth production, and the audience's engagement. Her work examines the tension between looking or watching and doing or acting., involving viewers in the performative experience. Chaudhari’s research leverages archival materials—texts and photographs—to construct performances around memory production, examining how archives allow for the reliving of events. Her works blend reportage, documentary, and fiction to explore how personal memories intersect with historical narratives, inviting speculative reinterpretations that form new narratives.