Karthik Pandain

Karthik Pandain's installation, Before the Sun, at Midway Art Gallery was a piece that required a lot of outside information to understand. The actual installation comprised of two square glass pillars both about 6 feet tall supporting vintage 16mm video recorders. The pillars stood on a platform about 10 feet across made out of sand and dirt. The film captured archaeological dips at Indian mounds in Illinois. At first the room in which the display was held was disorientating, it was very dark and the videos playing were seen at two opposite corners in the crevices of adjacent walls. The images were ambiguous, only a sunrise or sunset with silhouettes of people randomly crossing the screen. After our guide explained what the film was depicting and that the film was being rotated on wires across the ceiling, the piece gained meaning. Contemporary art relies mostly on background information, without it the viewer (in my case) loses interest in the possible pretensions of this type of obscure art.