Manchester may be miles away from Mumbai,but they share a rich industrial heritage. For Goa-based performance artiste Nikhil Chopra,tying the two cities with a common thread involved delving into their pasts. The result was a grand showcase that lasted 65 hours titled,Coal on Cotton at the Manchester International Festival. The performance was held from July 5-7. I was conceptually trying to create a link between Manchester and Mumbai. Manchester has traditionally been known for its cotton mills during the 19th century and Mumbai has seen its share of mills, says Chopra,a day after his show. In terms of scale,Chopra claims this is his biggest,coming close to his earlier performance which involved walking from north Mumbai to Colaba and spreading cotton fabric along the way. Coal on Cotton involved scribbling on the walls of a life-sized cotton tent,which he created using 480 metres of cotton yarn at his studio workshop in Goa. He was dressed,at various times,as cotton mill worker,a shrewd mill boss from Manchester and an Indian cotton farmer in tattered clothes,all along swathed in ash. Chopra was eating,sleeping,changing and resting for three full days and two nights through the duration of the performance at the Whitworth Art Gallery. During his research of four months,which involved visits to mills across Manchester,Chopra was struck by the similarities in working conditions that are still prevalent in factories in India today poor sanitation,harsh working conditions and so on. I was trying to put a magnifying glass on the two materials I am most comfortable with coal and cotton. When I scratched the surface,I saw there was a common link between these two materials and the two cities, says Chopra,sounding almost euphoric over the phone from Manchester. More than 8,000 people turned up for the show. I walked into the showcase thinking it would be alright. But five hours into the performance,I was exhausted,not realising that I still had 60 hours remaining, he says. The performance started at 4.40 am on Friday and ended at 9.30 pm on Sunday in order to trace the idea of dawn to dusk,and the cycle of day and night. His tent becomes the canvas upon which he drew images using charcoal pieces of chimneys from mills ,tracing the mill tradition and the exploitative nature of factory owners across Europe. Whatever he did,Chopra was careful not to become dogmatic. I was thinking about the Vidarbha farmers who are victims of bad governance and the mill workers in Manchester. The work is not preachy, says Chopra,who last performed at the festival in 2009 in a group show that had him playing a multitude of characters. Chopra,a post-graduate in Fine Arts from the Ohio State University,has had his work exhibited globally at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009,and New York,besides shows at Museum of Contemporary Art,Chicago,and a recent showcase using his favourite medium,charcoal,titled Blackening in May at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Delhi. I keep coming back to this medium because it is a very gradual,ephemeral material and not factory produced. You have to really come close to it to see that you have lost the drawing. The material lends to the nature of the performance which is also ephemeral, he says. While ideating his performances,Chopra says he relies on the space itself and then excavates stories from it. For my work,the location creates the context and the work becomes the fodder, says Chopra,who will head back to Goa for a short break,before beginning work on other projects.
