art

I Still Live Here Sampler

Submitted by nikhil on Sun, 09/19/2010 - 01:55
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In 2010, I was blessed to collaborate with some amazing artists on a ~20 minute performance work entitled I Still Live Here:

I Still Live Here is the premier work of Chicago-based African diasporic performance project, The Artisans of Alchemy (AOA). AOA's founder and director, Ni'Ja Whitson choreographs this eclectic and gripping interdisciplinary performance work, that locates and expresses body memory; a gesture boldly traversing the collection of scars and narratives stored between skin.

Supported by original compositions from sound artist nikhil trivedi, site specific performance for video composed by Whitson, and presented through expressive and dynamically moving bodes, the multimedia landscape of I Still Live Here questions our complicity and personal relationship to violence, connects the horrific reality of “corrective rapes” occurring in staggering numbers in South Africa, to shared histories of, struggles to overcome, and experiences within, collective trauma.


  • 1:30 minutes (1.38 MB)

Masrayana Sampler by nikhil trivedi

Submitted by nikhil on Mon, 11/07/2005 - 11:41
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In fall of 2005 I played sitar for a play called “The Masrayana,” a story about a farmer in Rajastan, Gopal Masra, who’s brother pays off the village-clerk to issue a death certificate in Gopal’s name so that he may inherit the family farm. Gopal’s brother kicks him out of his own house, and he’s left for dead. The story describes his plight, and how he fights back. I was awarded a Jeff Citation Award for Best Original Incidental Music for my composition and performance in this show.

“Completing the environment is composer Nikhil Trivedi’s work on the sitar, which blends with recorded music to create an atmosphere of wonder.” Windy City Times, September 28, 2005

“Nikhil Trivedi’s atmospheric sitar music, from a platform above the audience, adds polish.”, Chicago Sun-times, September 17, 2005

“As the drama of Gopal’s quest unfolds, The Masrayana is beautifully accented by Nikhil Trivedi’s sitar music. Trivedi accompanies the play from a picture-perfect perch above the stage.”, The Indian Reporter, October 2005


  • 3:48 minutes (3.48 MB)

MSU Journal of Medicine and Law cover design

Submitted by nikhil on Sun, 05/01/2005 - 15:04
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In the summer of 2004, I was asked to design a cover Michigan State University's Journal of Medicine and Law. Their editor-in-cheif felt in previous years, their journal covers were a bit plain for his tastes--almost always white with a black and white picture of their law school building on the cover, all-centered text stating the name of the journal, and usually a table of content’s right on the front cover. But they felt that the presentation of the journal should hold as much weight as its contents, so they wanted to invest in the design of a slick, eye-catching cover that would lend the journal more credibility from a first initial glance. The woman watermarked on the cover is part of the MSU logo, and the left side of her shoulder wrapped around the binding and bled a bit onto the back cover of the journal.

The Key to Happiness

Submitted by nikhil on Tue, 10/07/2003 - 14:57
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This was my first movie, starring a buddy from work, Jared, and his girlfriend Erin Kneip.

Bhangra Fusion 3 Stage Set

Submitted by nikhil on Sat, 01/26/2002 - 00:27
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A group of 16 people, including myself, performed a choreographed bhangra for one of the two national bhangra competitions at the time Bhangra Fusion. The lead choreographer and I designed a stage set for the dance, which included a base platform that was 4’ high, 8’ wide and 3’ deep made out of 2×4’s and plywood, and we painted the front of it with latex paint to look like a tractor with words on the right side of the tractor actually saying ‘Chicago’ in Punjabi. On top of this base platform was two people holding another platform on their shoulders, and standing on top of that THAT platform, was me--about 20' in the air! All the outfits were designed by us and made by a woman on our team. We danced with dandas (long sticks) that we painted striped with silver cloth.

Les Claypool Illustration

Submitted by nikhil on Thu, 01/10/2002 - 00:35
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Honorable mention in LesClaypool.com’s Art Contest (Printscreen).

Les Claypool the bassist for the band Primus, and was a major point of inspiration for my bass playing while I was younger. His style was unlike anything else I'd ever heard, and his attitude towards the instrument was free-spirited, and I felt he was unafraid to push his playing and music in new and unique directions.

In this work I tried to capture the quirkiness of his style of playing, and how he seems to make his bass an extension of his body, and himself an extension of his bass guitar.

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