Neha Choksi, ELEMENTARY, 2018-
NOTES TOWARDS ARCHIVING + BOOK
Elementary is a long-term, multi-format project that stems from a lived performance wherein Choksi attends for an entire academic year (2018-2019) a Los Angeles public elementary school as a kindergarten student. Elementary is still ongoing.
IN ORDER OF DATE OF PRODUCTION
Actual Size
Elementary Sympathy
performance
2018
Elementary (Sympathy), an exhibition at Actual Size (2018), this live conversation work was followed by an exhibition. The Actual Size event and exhibition preceded the school attendance. It was reviewed in Artforum.
· Large blank “posters” designed for installation & performance use; one poster only retained, rest as digital
· Audio recording of performance as conversation
· Catalog by Suzy Halajian with text written for catalog by Choksi
· Photo documentation
· Performance Notes
· Notes from Postclassicism Workshop on Sympathy convened by Princeton, UCL, Jnanapravaha)
· Emails with Suzy Halajian, Corrie Siegel
· Lauren Mackler in Artforum
18th Street
Elementary (how was school today?)
installation and performance
2018
How was school today?, a show and tell performance as part of a residency and solo exhibition, ELEMENTARY (how was school today?), at 18th Street Arts Center (2018). The first three months of school coincided with this. The live performances at 18th Street were reviewed by four writers in Riting.
· Install photos
· Performance photo and video
· Peg boards from installation
· Stickers on peg boards, design files
· Handout for installation (no text used deliberately)
· Production notes, dead-ends (like with Archie) and emails with Anuradha Vikram and 18th Street
· Correspondence with Asher Hartman, Tim Reid re: clowning / Clowning outcome, Anna Ialeggio
· Reviews by Carmen Argote, Pia Sazani, Dan Bustillo, Amanda Martin Katz;
LFCSA
Elementary
Live work with components
2018-2019
· School work from school attendance
· Artwork made at school
· Notes from the time of school attendance (Examples of notes taken during school year in presentation for University of Illinois here.)
· Wave project for classmates at 18th St and adopted by school
· Video made for pollution project at school
· Thank you book made by class for me
· Emails with School, with teacher, with parents
· School legalities and paperwork, Anuradha Vikram and 18th Street
· Report card and graduation certificate
· Teachers, my perception of role of my art teacher and my kindergarten teacher in making this possible
· Playdates and any continuing contact
· Harvest festival 2019 description, oral historian.
Migrating Pedagogies
Back to Kindergarten
postcards
2023
Back to Kindergarten, a series of postcards produced as a Chrysalis Fellow, Migrating Pedagogies (2022-2023)
Presentation PDF for Migrating Pedagogies Fellow lecture at University of Illinois here.
The Box Gallery (funded by Pieter and Armory exhibitions)
Hierarchy Study
Live work
2022
Hierarchy Study (Elementary), a performance and installation at school and at the Box Gallery (2022).
· Score video
· Drawings made during performance
· Performance video (RYBG Co)
· Video made during class (Jason Underhill)
· Watercolors
· Installation photos
· Dance class attendance notes
· Dance teacher emails
· Photos of performance and during class
· Press
· Pieter and Armory invitations
· Release forms
· Audience reactions, oral historian?
Haus der Kunst Munich
Mitschüler*in [Classmate]
Installation and book
2025
The installation and book „Mitschuler*in: eine erwachsene Künstler*in kehrt in die Vorschule zurück“ [“Classmate: an adult artist returns to kindergarten”] is part of the exhibition For Children. Art Stories since 1968. Commissioned by Haus der Kunst, Munich (2025)
· Published book
· Installation photos
· Exhibition catalog (in process)
· Book design files
· Installation design files
FORTHCOMING
Museum of Modern Art Warsaw
October 2025, June 2025
DanceNotes
Untitled
Artist Chaplet (In process)
2025
Seminar at HdK, Under consideration
December 2025?
BOOK: EXPANDED COMPREHENSIVE BOOK OR NOT? + FUNDING?
Title: Classmate: an adult as a student in kindergarten
· Talk to LACA and Anuradha Vikram once in Los Angeles.
· Book publisher?
· Oral historian for oral history?
· Funding ideas for book, archiving, any part of the process? (LACE Lightning fund?)
· Possible interlocutors, Anuradha Vikram, Michael Ned Holte (has been writing about the project, he has told me), Lydia Korndorfer (is writing about the project currently for the HdK catalog), curators who have shown interest (Andrea Lissoni, Stephanie Rosenthal, Diana Campbell, Cliff Lauson), performance observers (Pia Sazani, Tim Reid), psychoanalysts (Vincent Dachy London, Ben Kafka, NYU), etc.