Nikhil Chopra combines strategies associated with theater, portraiture, photography, and installation to chronicle the world in which we live through live performance. Taking on the largely imagined, semi-autobiographical persona of the Victorian draughtsman Yog Raj Chitrakar, Chopra haunts bustling market squares, forgotten old buildings, city streets, and museum galleries to make large-scale drawings of the city. Within the performance, daily actions—washing, eating, sleeping, and grooming—are transformed into ritualistic spectacle. While an ambiguous past collides with an unstable present, Yog Raj Chitrakar reveals the process of documenting what he sees while exploring self-portraiture, autobiography, history, fantasy, and sexuality. From November 4-8, Chopra activates the lobby gallery, now a turn-of the-century tableau vivant, for five days as Yog Raj Chitrakar. The exhibition is presented in conjunction with Performa 09.

Wednesday, November 4
12 p.m. Performance begins, Yog Raj Chitrakar in gallery
6 p.m. New Museum closes

Thursday, November 5
9 a.m. Yog Raj Chitrakar departs from Battery Park on the first ferry to Ellis Island
12 p.m. New Museum opens
Approximately 2 p.m. Yog Raj Chitrakar departs Ellis Island, returns to New Museum
9 p.m. New Museum closes

Friday, November 6
7:30 a.m. Yog Raj Chitrakar departs New Museum for Battery Park
9 a.m. Yog Raj Chitrakar departs Battery Park on first ferry to Ellis Island
12 p.m. New Museum opens
Approximately 2 p.m. Yog Raj Chitrakar departs Ellis Island, returns to New Museum
9 p.m. New Museum closes

Saturday, November 7
7:30 a.m. Yog Raj Chitrakar departs New Museum for Battery Park
9 a.m. Yog Raj Chitrakar departs Battery Park on first ferry to Ellis Island
12 p.m. Museum opens
Approximately 2 p.m. Yog Raj Chitrakar departs Ellis Island, returns to New Museum
6 p.m. New Museum closes

Sunday, November 8
12 p.m. New Museum opens, Yog Raj Chitrakar in gallery all day
6 p.m. Performance ends