Why is it so dark in here?

Before the Sun

2010

Karthik Pandian

When walking into Karthik Pandian's exhibit at the Midway, my first thought was why is it dark in here? and that was soon fallowed by, crap I'm going to trip over something. Why were those the first things to pop into my head when I walked into Pandian's exhibit, because as part of his artwork being showed at the midway were two videos. Playing in opposite corners (yes in the actual corners) of the room were two videos, each showing a different loop of video.

One of the videos showed pictures of a sunset and people walking across the screen, this is the video that caught my attention the most. For me looking at the people walking across the screen I got the sense of time passing, and I started thinking that the noise playing in the gallery was some sort of scraping sound. Of course this is not what Pandian meant at all when he created this piece of artwork. And once the artists meaning behind the artwork was described to me, I understood everything presented much better.

Yes I understood why it was dark, and why there was a big block in the middle of the room, and the reason for the noises that were being played. Do you think you will understand right away? Can you pick out what noise makes a distinct popping sound on the soundtrack? You might just have to go and see for yourself, because not matter how well I describe Pandians artwork, experiencing it for yourself is so much better.

Below is a link for the Midway.

http://www.midwayart.org/