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The Violence of Vitality

Minimalist purple cover with black text: ART MUSEUM PAPERS 05. THE VIOLENCE OF VITALITY at the top and NEHA CHOKSI in the center, each next to a black dot.

The Violence of Vitality

Art Museum Papers 05 by Neha Choksi

Art Museum Papers is a publishing series from Buxton Contemporary and the Potter Museum of Art that extends the conversations sparked by our exhibitions, residencies and research programs.

Issue 5: The Violence of Vitality by Neha Choksi

Edited by Pippa Milne and Annika Aitken. Designed by Paul Mylecharane for Common Room.

This is one of three Papers commissioned by Art Museums at the University of Melbourne on the occasion of A velvet ant, a flower and a bird presented at the Potter Museum of Art (19 February–6 June 2026). The other Papers are written by Chus Martínez and Laura Tribaldi.

Available for purchase at Buxton Contemporary or Potter Museum of Art.

$10 or 3 Art Museum Papers for $25.

Raised in a Jain family, artist and thinker Neha Choksi inherits the ethic of ahimsa (non-violence) and the philosophical worldview of anekantavada (non-absolutism or multivalent truth). Jainism teaches that violence is inevitable in life, but minimising harm is a moral imperative. This produces a paradox: one must live — and thus harm — while striving not to harm. What are the ethical implications of accepting that living requires extraction, disturbance and consumption— whether by breathing, digging in sand as a child, making art, or using planetary resources. Violence is not framed only as aggression, but as the unavoidable impact of vitality itself.