The Spectacle of History: Nikhil Chopra at the Met

For nine days, from September 12–20, 2019, Indian-born performance artist Nikhil Chopra lived, ate, slept, drew, and performed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City for his performance of Land, Water, and Skies. Museums invite spectators to step into another universe by displaying artifacts behind vitrines with decors that mimic their original locations, leaving the untold stories of how they got there to the viewer’s imagination. Chopra’s performance brought the illusion of the authenticity of museum spaces to life. As an artist-in-residence, he offered viewers a “spectacle of history,” or a live interpretation of what historical artefacts enact silently behind their glass cases. By inhabiting the museum galleries, donning various costumes, and drawing on a large canvas, he acted like a live museum object. As he stated of the piece, “My body is a ‘museum’ that holds a collection of memories. I don’t view the Met as a neutral space; I come from India and I carry the subcontinent’s colonial past with me.”