Karthik Pandian: Before the Sun

When I first walked in, I was a little confused. there was a large platform in the middle of the room and two videos shown in opposite corners that honestly looked like a home video from a family vacation. Initially, I was like what the heck is this, but it's not until you learn the background that you can start to fully appreciate the piece. The films in the corners captured people walking among St. Louis' Cahokia Mounds. Every other element of the installation works towards the idea of remembering the past through the videos. The large platform is made from dirt taken from the area. The two videos are not even in fact two videos. It is actually only one video that is being strung between two projectors. The projectors are actually imbedded in the platform and sort of protrude as two columns of mirrors. The sunrise and sunset shown in the videos was from the same archaeological site. the film was fed through one projector and up above on some strings similar to those used in archaeological digs. all these were symbols of the location where the video was filmed. Metro magazine writes, "The symbol laden display is intended to remind the modern viewer both of his connection to the ancient people and of the relationship we all have with the sun" (metromag.com). As stated in Metro Magazine, this piece is almost entirely made up of symbolism. Everything from the large platform to the almost invisible strings overhead carries some sort of symbolism for the location and the people, both past and present, who inhabit it. City Pages writes, "in this film installation by Karthik Pandian, the artist explores our connection to the past through filming ancient clay mounds made by people from Cahokia long ago" (blogs.citypages.com). Pandian's main goal, I believe, was to show the history of the area and its people through the use of symbolism and imagery.