Midway Contemporary Art: Karthik Pandian

Our site visit to Midway Contemporary Art, was definitely an interesting one. Mostly because when I first walked in I was really confused. I was not expecting it to be so dark! It took at least five minutes for my eyes to adjust, and even then I still did not really understand, there wasn't many people there yet so no one could really explain to me what was going on. I thought the dirt slabs and film reels were interesting, and once everyone had arrived and someone explained what the exhibit was it intrigued me how it all worked. One small detail I thought was really cool was the fact that there were small sea shells mixed into the dried sand. You wouldn't realize this when you first walk in because it is so dark in there but once you get a close look, there are always little details like that that make the art interesting. Another interesting thing that I didn't notice until someone pointed it out, is that the films looped themselves, if you look at the ceiling you can see the film running back through the machine so that it never ends. I thought that was really cool, I didn't really know that was possible. The films themselves were projected into the corners of the room, which made it look out of the ordinary. The films that were displayed showed various clips of the sun setting, so since the room was so dark, the only color showing in the room was different colors of oranges and yellows. The warm colors set a sort of mood. The various clips gave me a feeling of wonder, I wasn't quite sure what was going on in them so it was nice just to watch and try to figure it out. We had plenty of time to look around so it was fun to just sit and watch. After watching for a while and learning more about the exhibit, I learned that they clips were actually projected into the eastern and western corners of the gallery, to go along with the sunrise and sunset theme of the piece. I thought this was really clever, because you wouldn't normally catch on to that, unless you knew exactly which direction you were facing. Another thing you wouldn't normally notice unless you were looking for it was that there was magenta colored string across the ceiling making a grid. This grid was a metaphor for modernity's connection with the past. This trip to the Midway art Center was probably one of my favorites so far. It was really fun to just wander around for a while trying to figure out the Karthik Pandian exhibition.