The Sun rises in the East and Sets in the West...

I've never been one for art installations. For some reason they just don't spark my interest. However, that doesn't mean I can't respect them for the work and thought put in. This was actually the first installation I have intentionally seen, and because of this, it allowed me to pay closer attention to details and take in the piece as a whole. At first glance it just seemed like a dark room with two projectors shooting film of a sunrise and sunset in opposing corners atop a stepped platform, of sorts. The further I looked around and the more I heard explained about the piece however, the more it made perfect sense. I was actually impressed at how every aspect of the installation tied in to the overall theme of it. The platform was packed earth around the cases holding the projectors. The projectors were resting on sand/dirt. The film was being wound around a matrix of lines, those normally used during an archaeological dig, strung high above one's head so the film would naturally degrade with time. The films were of a sunrise and sunset at a particular archaeological site called the Cahokia mounds. The platform is placed in the four cardinal directions of north, south, east, and west, just like the largest of the Cahokia mounds, Monk's Mound. Karthik Pandian ties it all perfectly into the relationship between architecture and archaeology, modernity and history.

- Meahgan Wood