From rupees to dollars, the concept of money influences one international artist whose work is on display at the A.E. England Building, a historic venue at Civic Space Park near the Downtown campus, which opened Friday.
Siri Khandavilli, an intermedia graduate student from India, is the first artist on exhibition at the Artlink A.E. England Gallery, an art venue within the recently renovated historic space.
Khandavilli’s exhibition, titled “For the Love of Money,” will be on display until Nov. 6.
“For me, my works are ponderings,” she said. “I have this uncomfortable relationship with money.”
Khandavilli said that within her art, she wanted to place money in all the things that are important in her life.
She used mixed media, video art, paintings and installations to reflect her complex relationship with money.
Jenea Sanchez, an intermedia graduate student, volunteered to be the curator of the gallery space. She said she feels honored to have the opportunity to work with fellow artists.
The concepts and aesthetics of Khandavilli’s work interest Sanchez most.
She said the exhibition took about four weeks to prepare.
Khandavilli was born and raised in India and trained in a traditional Indian style of miniature painting.
In her work, Khandavilli uses imagery and symbols drawn from Hindu myths and rituals.
On exhibition are 11 mixed-media paintings and one video played on a large screen in the auditorium of the building.
The paintings contain bright colors, photographs and intricate paper cuttings of American and Indian currency.
“The colors I use are traditional Indian colors like vermillion and emerald,” Khandavilli said.
Photographs used in the paintings are portraits of the artist interacting with money.
“Money is My Honey” is a photograph that shows Khandavilli’s painted face consuming money dipped in honey and is collaged against a painted red and gold background smeared with honey.
The paper cuttings are crafted into symbols and figures like the lotuses that are traditional to India.
In her video “Eat,” Khandavilli explores the concept of endless consumption by physically eating paper cutouts shaped like a fly and butterfly.
She said in her work, and even in her own life, flies symbolize death and butterflies represent beauty.
“[Butterflies] last for a short time, but they are beautiful,” she said. “Human life span is similar — both are short.”
Sloane Burwell, president of the nonprofit art organization Artlink, which runs the gallery, said the partnership between the city of Phoenix and her organization is a fantastic way to show the works of emerging artists in a unique gallery space.
Burwell said with the current economic recession, the artist’s topic is timely.
Khandavilli said, “As an artist I have some qualities I carry from my background from India, but most of all, I hope that my works speak to people on a human level, which is universal.”
The A.E. Artlink Gallery is currently accepting applications from artists who would like to have their work shown in future exhibitions in the downtown venue space.
Reach the reporter at lpalmisa@asu.edu.
