On the construction site of the Whitworth’s new wing to be devoted to landscape art, Nikhil Chopra performed Coal on Cotton, 2013, as part of the Manchester International Festival. Known for creating large-scale representational drawings in front of an audience, as a performance, Chopra is unusual in that both aspects of his practice appear to carry equal weight.

Coal on Cotton took its inspiration from the nineteenth-century trade route for cotton between Manchester and Mumbai. Chopra’s performance unfolded over sixty-five hours, from sunrise on a Friday morning to sunset on Sunday, as he