Artist's 65-hour painting event celebrates history of world's first industrial city

Artist Nikhil Chopra on Sunday finished a marathon 65-hour art event at the Whitworth Art Gallery as part of the Manchester International Festival. Chopra's art event was called Coal on Cotton and drew inspiration from the historic roots of Manchester in the north of England as the world's first industrial city. Chopra, an Indian artist, also drew on his family's history and the historic trade links between Manchester and Mumbai, the port city where he was born. His performance explored the relationship between Manchester's textiles, the people who made them in India and Britain, and the artist's own family history. Chopra began the event at dawn on Friday as dawn light crept in through the Victorian glass roof of the gallery's entrance. He lived and worked in the gallery throughout the 65-hour span of the event, living entirely in public view for that time as he drew paintings in coal on cotton fabric. Throughout the weekend he worked and slept in a huge cotton tent he erected in the half-completed landscape gallery, due to be completed next summer. Dr Maria Balshaw, director of the Whitworth Art Gallery, told Xinhua, "We don't think the gallery has stayed open all night since World War II, so we are pushing the boundaries of what a gallery does." The event began a final season of programs for the renowned gallery in Manchester which closes its doors on September 22 for a million pound refit. "We have put our crown jewels on display with these exhibitions," said Balshaw. Highlights include works by early 19th century English painters JMW Turner, William Blake, and the contemporary Indian-born, British-educated artist Anish Kapoor, whose Mittal Tower was the highest point in the Olympic Park at the London Olympic Games. The gallery will open after the 12 million pound (about 22.3 million U.S. dollars) refit in June 2014.