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Pharma-Go-Round .2, 2021
chandelier, prescription bottles, LED tea lights, acrylic mirrors, plastic cylinders, found metal objects, gold pearl beads, resin teeth, motorized turntables, state hospital curtains, 96" x 18" x 20"
Medication is often inaccessible to those who need it most due to its exorbitant cost, lack of health insurance and lack of access to healthcare. However, the cost of medication and side effects are not reflected in the generic amber colored plastic bottles.These prescription bottles are melted to contort and distort. The bottles are embellished with with gold pearl beads in places where they are distorted calling up the Japanese practice of *Kintsugi ("golden repair") which is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted with powdered gold to acknowledge the history of the object. In doing so, difference is embraced. The single sculpture on top of the two tiers is a pair of melted prescription bottles embedded with resin teeth animating them. The carousel movement reflects the never ending relationship to prescription meds, side effects, stigma and the search for healing.
Chanika Svetvilas (she/her)is an interdisciplinary artist who utilizes lived experience to create safe spaces, to disrupt stereotypes and to reflect on contemporary issues. She has presented her interdisciplinary work at ABC No Rio, Brooklyn Public Library, Westbeth Gallery, Denver International Airport, Asian Arts Initiative, Islip Art Museum, Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, and conferences including the Society for Disability Studies, Pacific Rim International Conference on Disability and Diversity, and College Art Association among other spaces and contexts. Her work is also included in Studying Disability Arts and Culture: An Introduction by Petra Kuppers and published in Wordgathering and Rogue Agent. She is the recipient of the New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization Grant and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant. She is curator of the annual Unique Minds:Creative Voices exhibit at Princeton University that highlights mental health and neurodiversity. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College. She resides in Princeton, NJ and has a studio at Art Station in Hightstown, NJ. She serves on the Hightstown Cultural Arts Commission.
Windows at 519 Evergreen is funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts and the
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
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