Charla Khanna: Secular Santos    Nov 28 - Dec 19, 2009

JANE SAUER GALLERY presents “Secular Santos,” an exhibition of “art dolls” by textile artist Charla Khanna of Taos, New Mexico.

Being in a room of dolls made by Charla Khanna creates a world made from the heart. The dolls of Khanna are not saccharine or fluffy. “Doll making provides me with the best vehicle to express what I want to about life, people and ideas,” Khanna says. She takes issue with seeing her artworks as simply decorative “dolls” or anything trivial. “They represent archetypes or metaphors of the human psyche and human experience. They are manifestations of the human spirit, of the varied aspects of the human psyche.”

When viewing Khanna’s dolls, one wonders what culture and gender they represent. While they seem to reference the Taos artist’s proximity with both Native American and Hispanic or Mexican cultures, they have an Asian sensibility as well. The dolls are not gender specific either. Their androgyny reinforces the artist’s idea that they are not “little people,” but expressions of states of being that ask each viewer to tell their stories for them.

The most striking aspect about Khanna’s “Secular Santos” is the dazzling textile design work. Most dolls are unique, but she may work through an idea in a series of four to six dolls, with variations on the theme. The costumes vary in style: some have intricate patchwork designs of radiant hues; others are covered with stone or glass beads; some carry small over-the-shoulder pouches or other hidden pockets that contain hidden treasures or amulets that help decipher their meaning.

The viewer is always drawn to take the doll off the wall but not for the purpose of cuddling. The viewer feels compelled to examine the fiber techniques and meticulous details. The passion with which they were made is obvious. Charla first molds the heads, hands and feet out of paper pulp, adds several coats of modeling paste, a couple coats of gesso and an oil glaze. The doll’s features are painted with casein and finally varnished. A number of these parts are made at one time. During the aging process Charla begins to imagine what faces are to match with other parts and what they will become. The body is made of cotton fabric, “stuffed as hard as I can make it with polyester fiber fill” she explains. The silk garments are pieced, beaded, stitched, patched, and layered.