This is Chanika Svetvilas and my artist statement for present/breath. As someone who self-identifies with an invisible disability of bipolar disorder, I search for ways to describe my way of being. My presence of mind fluctuates, meanders, collides with memories and is not always present when medical treatment has pulled me away from myself instead of providing care.  I use charcoal to describe my lived experience as a transformative material that in its activated form is used to absorb chemicals after a stomach is pumped from a drug overdose and as a tool that allows me to leave my mark including my mistakes. I use my own voice in text layered and smeared over medical ones juxtaposed with images like a rebus puzzle. My prescription bottle sculptures use humor and whimsy to convey the ironies of the alienation of treatment and healthcare disparities. To disrupt the alienation, I invite viewers to embrace themselves and write a self-affirmation on a reflective speech balloon to share with others as part of a community that is present in the gallery.

Chanika overview present/breath statement

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My work is grounded in my lived experience as a Thai American woman with a mental health difference. Although my diagnosis of bipolar does not define me, the spectrum from depression to mania and the blips in between has impacted my perspective and sensibility gained with mad pride. As someone who self-identifies with disability and as a disability justice advocate, I incorporate criptime into my practice. This means rest and recovery are just as important if not more than productivity. I adjust as needed and allow flexibility to others’ timelines as well. Spoon theory, symbolized in my sculpture with actual spoons, recognizes and acknowledges the fluctuating level of energy for tasks by the amount of nourishing spoons left.

The video, Mom’s Story, was filmed during the last year of her life during which time she had dementia. Despite her condition, she recognized me and always found a way to express her love. I wanted to center her story and aspirations captured in an audio recording from a prior decade and link it to mine, the next generation.

The sculpture in the corner, Contained (66” x 12” x 6”), continues the relationship between my mom and me, both with mental health experiences of depression. Our photo together, me as a child, is contained in a mounted prescription bottle inside the cage. The ribbon that wraps around and extends below in strips states, “On a 1-10 rating scale, 1 meaning nowhere near their usual level of self and 10 meaning at their usual level of functioning or better, my family member is…” Below the cage a thick black hair braid extends with a Thai marigold garland and ends with a large tassel of a torn American flag integrated with a torn Thai textile with bells including a temple bell looped onto it.

The series of large charcoal drawings (5 ft x 7.5 ft) on illustration board feature a bipolar sensory neuron anthropomorphized - human-like with my mouth taking place of the soma or cell body. The dendrites extend above and the axons are feet-like extend below. I wanted to create monstrous vulnerability that I self-identify with. The scream is for agency. I use charcoal as a transformative material. Charcoal is symbolic of my experience with it’s use to absorb chemicals in the body after the stomach is pumped. The messiness reveals the process with the fingerprints emphasizing the human mark. I also reveal my relationship to the work through my handwritten notes.

The last collaged charcoal drawings on lined paper (36” x 24”) is part of an ongoing series of over 80 drawings, What I have learned (Fill in the Blank). These four were created in response to the ongoing conflict in Gaza and feature my bipolar sensory neuron. I wanted to acknowledge that war has disabled Palestine as noted by the writer, Leah Piepzna-Samarasinha. The collage of the first three drawings are downloaded images from the internet of bombed hospitals in Gaza. The last drawing uses collage from the bombed vehicles of Central World Kitchen, ambulances and spoiled watermelon and other fruit.

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Instagram: @chanikasvetvilas

Multiverse Statement by Chanika Svetvilas

Chanika overview present/breath statement

Chanika Svetvilas

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