Neha Choksi

Hierarchy Study (Elementary)
2022
Live work
Performed live at the Box Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Friday, Jun 3 2022, 4:30pm

DESCRIPTION

Hierarchy Study (Elementary) is a live work stemming from a 2018-2019 lived performance, Elementary, in which Neha Choksi attended a Los Angeles public elementary school as a kindergarten student. The development of Hierarchy Study began in the 2021-2022 academic year with Neha’s return to kindergarten, this time as an artist-in-residence, to attend dance classes.

This live work dislodges child-adult interactions to allow the kindergartners agency and their bodies primacy in directing their dance teacher Paola Escobar’s movements. A related video and painting installation was part of the exhibition at the Box following the performance. Hierarchy Study is one strand of the Elementary project that probes the process of enculturation.

PERFORMANCE DOCUMENTATION

PERFORMANCE PHOTOS

EXHIBITION AT THE BOX GALLERY

Installation at the Box Gallery, Los Angeles, features the video score used in “Hierarchy Study,” along with the drawing produced during the performance by Audrey Juarez, Bento Goulart Mourao, Henry Sandstrom, Jet Chao, and Maximo Flaugher, with Neha Choksi.

VIDEO STILLS

VIDEO SCORE

Video Score for Hierarchy Study (Elementary)
2022

Live work featuring dance artist Paola Escobar and her kindergarten students from CalCreative Elementary School, Audrey Juarez, Bento Goulart Mourao, Henry Sandstrom, Jet Chao, and Maximo Flaugher.

Video score in addition features kindergartener Tiffany Carrasco.
Tabla and Daf: Neel Agrawal; Gongs: Christopher Garcia; Music: Mangesh Dhakde

CO-COMMISSIONED BY

Presented by Pieter and Armory Center for the Arts as part of the exhibition Knees, Schools, Urges, organized by Jennie MaryTai Liu, for Pieter at the Box Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, and how we are in time and space: Annotations, organized by Michael Ned Holte, at Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA.

RELATED PROJECTS

The first three months of school coincided with a residency and a solo exhibition at 18th Street Arts Center. The live performances at 18th Street were reviewed here. (2018-2019)
Elementary (Sympathy) exhibition at Actual Size (2018)
Back to Kindergarten, a series of postcards (2022-2023)
Forthcoming chapbook (2025)