Published in Mumbai Mirror, 12 August 2013.
Four films, including one by Mumbai/LA artist Neha Choksi, explore the human need to touch in a video-art-exchange initiative
Art often invites touch. This might be frowned upon in galleries and museums where “Please Do Not Touch the Artwork” signs and CCTV cameras are in place to ensure no contact. It isn’t vandalism that makes viewers want to reach out and feel a sculpture, though, as much as the instinctive need to touch. “Touching and being touched, in all its senses, seems to… encompass the three valences (of pleasure, anxiety and comedy),” says artist Neha Choksi, who has put together four videos that explore this idea, in Project 88’s ongoing exhibition, Touched.