Was that a shining moon in the sky or an Indian rupee coin glowing bright? Or perhaps it is a tongue between red lips licking a coin? Somewhere, flies are trapped in cobwebs while silver-golden coins drop as rain on meadows made of green shredded dollar.
‘Money is my Honey…’ is a quirky name for an art exhibition. And the works of Siri Devi Khandavili, the US-based artist, are intriguing indeed. “I wanted to map money, globalisation and the culture of over-consumption. The journey from hunger to satiety to gluttony is a vicious cycle,” she says.
The show has been curated by Dr Alka Pande, curator of the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre. Pande says, “Siri’s works display aspects of play, deep thought, beauty, reflection and concern with her environment. She recontextualises the dollar by looking at the rupee.”
As a prelude to the series, Khandavili did a performance where she ate chocolates made into coins, “I kept eating, even on the verge of throwing up...indicating how material greed drives us.”
‘Money Is My Honey’
When: Till August 22
Where: Gallery Ragini, F-213 c, Lado Sarai, New Delhi