Performance Art in India: Blurring Lines Between Artist and Audience
Last weekend, a group of individuals were blindfolded and guided through a path filled with obstacles, while a narrator delivered enigmatic statements such as "If you speak plainly, you are punished" and "If you are dangerous and ask why, you are punished." This was Mithu Sen’s "trickster performance," titled What Do Birds Dream at Dusk, which ingeniously transformed viewers into integral components of the artwork. Sen demonstrated how curated truths and collective denial shape contemporary society, even in her physical absence from Mumbai’s Chemould Prescott Road gallery. Her omnipresence was felt in the orchestration of this metaphorical struggle between sight and blindness, control and freedom, and reality versus perception.
The Poetics of Instruction and Choreography of Control
Sen describes this approach as the "poetics of instruction and choreography of control," where the performer’s invisible body or deliberate absence still directs the audience’s mind. Visitors are divided into two groups: the blindfolded and the witnesses. This division creates a dynamic tension where behavior, vulnerability, and power circulate unpredictably. "Performance becomes a site where viewers confront strangeness because my medium itself is the act of Un-ing: undoing, unravelling, unsettling," Sen explains.
Meanwhile, at Aspinwall House in Kochi, a different kind of performance unfolds. For the duration of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Berlin-based artist Anja Ibsch has been occupying various parts of the space for her shifting piece, Still. Visitors observe Ibsch as she rearranges objects and photos to create temporary installations, using locally sourced items, cutouts from medical books, and images from older performances. The arrangement changes daily, commenting on the transient nature of life and memory.
Regular visitors might feel slightly unsettled by the interplay between the familiar and the unfamiliar. Objects seem to have moved or altered, such as two balloons hanging next to a board titled "time" that change shape, or a small-scale figure of a woman appearing alongside foliage. "I explore how embodied histories intersect with the cultural landscapes we inhabit," says Ibsch, who has worked in performance art and installation since 1993. "Art is about creating connections, fostering meaningful conversations, and embracing vulnerability—whether through the body or the stories we tell."
Resisting Definitions and Embracing Participation
Even as discourse around this genre evolves in South Asia, ambiguity persists regarding its definition. Is it dance, theatre, or something in between? Ushmita Sahu, director and head curator at Emami Art, notes that performance art resists fixed definitions because it operates at the edges of disciplines rather than within a single form. "While it shares the condition of ‘liveness’ with theatre, dance, or music, it is not governed by their conventions of narrative, virtuosity, or spectacle," she states.
Unlike mainstream performing arts, which rely on set techniques and repeatable structures, performance art is concept-driven and exists in the moment. It unfolds with or in relation to the spectator, with its participatory nature setting it apart. "What distinguishes performance art is not the absence of skill or technique, but the way the artist’s body, actions, and lived experience become the primary site of meaning-making," adds Sahu.
The emphasis is on real-time encounters through attention, vulnerability, duration, and context. As Sen puts it, "Performance for me is a space where the anonymous body becomes an abstraction that can provoke, denounce and resist. Through acts of encountering—between my body, the audience and the sociopolitical conditions we inhabit—I aim to activate new perceptions."
The Changing Landscape of Performance Art in India
Performance art began gaining traction in India during the 1980s. A key event that shaped its development was the assault and death of theatre practitioner and activist Safdar Hashmi in 1989, which spurred new alliances among artists. "Performance art played a critical role in these articulations and expressions," says Samudra Kajal Saikia, lead researcher on a project by Asia Art Archive and the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art, which created a digital archive of performance art from the early 1990s to 2010.
Pioneers like Inder Salim and Rummana Hussain used the body as a tool for public confrontation, responding to political violence, authoritarianism, and social unrest. Hussain’s Living on the Margins (1995), featuring muted screams, remains a powerful work, though documentation is scarce. Other artists, such as Sushil Kumar, opposed documentation, making archival efforts reliant on secondary sources like fellow artists’ observations and essays.
The 1990s saw painters and sculptors experimenting with performance. M.F. Husain, for instance, painted goddess figures at the Tata Centre in Kolkata in 1992, then whitewashed the canvases as part of Six Days of Live Painting. The demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 deeply affected artists like Vivan Sundaram, Rummana Hussain, and Nalini Malani, prompting them to explore new mediums like performance and installation.
Contemporary Explorations and Technological Integration
Today, performance art is characterized by interdisciplinarity. Artists like Debashish Paul, Arpita Akhanda, Nikhil Chopra, and Mithu Sen move between sculpture, performance, image-making, textile, and text. Many resist traditional labels, identifying as conceptual artists where performance plays a key role. "Capitalism demands fixity, signature styles, and commodifiable objects. By refusing to be contained by a single medium, I intentionally unsettle this logic," says Sen.
Technology plays a crucial role in documentation, allowing ephemeral performances to take tangible form through video or still cameras. This is vital for scholars and institutions, though the "live" aspect remains irreplaceable. "For French artist Yves Klein, any physical object or remnant was merely the ‘ashes’ of his art," notes Rakhee Balaram, associate professor at State University of New York. Artists like Marina Abramović are now exploring mixed reality and AI to enhance viewer experiences.
Building an Ecosystem of Care and Collaboration
A support structure is gradually emerging for performance art. Once considered a fringe form, it is now recognized as an independent genre requiring nurturing. Internationally, festivals like Pace Live and Performa in the US, and institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and Tate London, have dedicated departments. In India, performance art is featured at the Serendipity Arts Festival and India Art Fair.
Foundations such as Serendipity Arts Foundation and artist-led spaces like HH Art Spaces and Khoj International Artists’ Association provide support from conception to presentation. For example, Serendipity’s three-month residency in Delhi offers studio space, grants, and stipends to younger artists experimenting with performative elements.
Collaborations have become a cornerstone of the genre. Nikhil Chopra’s Drawing a Line through Landscape at Documenta 14 involved a 30-day journey with costumes designed by Loise Braganza and tent design by Aradhana Seth. Similarly, Natasha Preenja’s alter ego, Princess Pea, collaborates with toy makers from Etikopakka in Andhra Pradesh, blending performance with community engagement.
Why Performance? The Artist’s Perspective
Artists often turn to performance when traditional mediums fall short. Shakuntala Kulkarni, who explores violence against women, finds that movement and body language are essential for addressing such themes. "Sometimes drawing is not enough. You need your body to address violence experienced by women," she says. Her series Is it Just a Game? uses video-based performances to critique power dynamics and gender inequality.
Amol Patil, inspired by his father’s archives, combines installation and performance to examine urban landscapes and marginalized communities. In Sweep Walkers (2022), performers on skates with cleaning brushes recreate memories of his father’s friend, highlighting individual protest and social exclusion.
As artists’ bodies accumulate new experiences, their relationship with performance evolves. For Sen, it has shifted from metaphorical to material, with each performance beginning as a conceptual tension. "The body becomes a porous site where language breaks down, identities slip, and political urgencies surface," she explains. In a world of flux, performance art continues to use the self as a site of inquiry, exploring hybrid worlds where technology and consciousness create new ways of living.
