Before the Sun and After

Before the Sun, at first an elusive name hanging somewhere in the dirty haze of a dark room, comes to light (literally, as your eyes adjust to the sudden darkness, it appears in front of you) as you enter the painted doors of the Midway Contemporary Art building. Though it is hard to pin point the focus of such a piece, I would elect the film loops in either corner as the president experiences in the room. With the sun rising in the eastern corner film, showing joggers and others going about their routines on the historical mounds just outside of St. Louis, you can follow with your eyes the film strip running above the projection, across the ceiling through the wire grid (much like that of an archaeological dig marking system) and into the western projection of the setting sun. Between the quite hum of the 16 mm film running along the ceiling and the recorded sound effects playing along with the films displayed on the eastern and western corners of the room one would feel almost inclined to curl up on the massive, stage-like dirt mound in the center of the room and attempt to take in the odd combination of sensory effects. The harsh darkness, the repetitious films on either side of the viewer, the smell of the sand-and-clay mound you would most likely either sit or stand on and the calamity of just a few sounds echoing in the strange acoustics make for a pleasantly bizarre experience, definitely worth a visit.

Karthic Pandian, the artist of the exhibit, is a contemporary artist from LA, who holds both and MFA and a BA and has shown work all over the country.