Atlas
2012 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
4:58 minutes
Karthik Pandian
Filmed in Morocco, the film Atlas by Karthik Pandian continues his investigation into history, site and monument. The film explores fundamental notions of movement, freedom and the cinematic imaginary through the figure of the camel. Rather than focusing on the Moroccan patrimonial landscape, which is itself full of simulations and fantasies conjured for the touristic imagination, Pandian shot the video in Ouarzazate, Hollywood’s go-to location to stage the desert — from Lawrence of Arabia to The Mummy. Littered with deteriorating sets constructed for films set in Jerusalem, ancient Egypt, Rome, Mecca… etc, the site portrayed in the video is itself disoriented, as Pandian collapses the distinction between set and location. Is it the Middle East? Is it the Western imagination of the Middle East? Is it a Moroccan fiction of the Middle East constructed for a Western gaze? In the video, camel ‘actors’ in custom-tailored costumes embroidered with American pennies and nickels, restlessly traverse the frame. Pandian’s stroboscopic editing of these sequences recall the flicker of Eadweard Muybridge’s 19th century animal locomotion studies, which focused photographic attention on the camel when it was first being introduced to the American West. The video also features an original score written for Pandian by renowned experimental composer Christian Wolff. The score, performed with coins, along with the embroidery on the costumes, summon the uneven exchanges – cultural, political, economic – that haunt the pursuit of liberty.
Los Angeles-born artist Karthik Pandian’s work explores our relationship to historical consciousness and the various ways in which we perceive and perform the past. Working across moving image, sculpture, performance, and film — having adopted the 16mm format inspired by ethnographic film — Pandian describes his work as being ‘concerned in particular with the way in which history lurks in matter.’ As such, he takes cues from the architecture and archaeology of sights, allowing the material history of objects and places to speak. Several of his videos and films in multimedia installations are accompanied by architectural structures or sculptural elements, that he often projects onto. In a notable work, Unearth (2011), for example, Pandian’s research of the Native American Cahokia culture and its ceremonial monuments resulted in films projected onto pillars made from ground soil taken from the research sites. Even though his work is research driven and has cultural references scattered throughout — in the forms of labyrinths, temples, and ancient structures among many others — Pandian’s interest is in the fictive possibilities that these representations from and of the past can carry. Through the play of time and materiality, and through a thought process that embraces ambivalence and opacity, the monuments and relics that Pandian captures become entangled in stroboscopic reverberations between past and present.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » SLASH PARIS
Ukraine, vision(s) — Photographie documentaire et littérature en résistance — La Gaîté lyrique — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Ukraine, vision(s) — Photographie documentaire et littérature en résistance — La Gaîté lyrique — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Previous Next Ukraine, vision(s) — Photographie documentaire et littérature en résistance Exhibition Photography Adrienne Surprenant © Adrienne Surprenant / MYOP Ukraine, vision(s) Photographie documentaire et littérature en résistance Ends in 4 months: February 9 → June 9, 2024 Du 9 février au 9 juin, le collectif MYOP invite les auteurs et autrices de PEN Ukraine à créer un dialogue entre écriture et photographie autour de l’Ukraine contemporaine, lors d’une exposition en accès libre à la Gaîté Lyrique...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Cakap-Cakap: Interview with Anaïs López for The Migrant | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles April 28, 2021 In this month’s Cakap-Cakap (chit-chat), ArtsEquator speaks with visual artist Anaïs López about her multimedia exhibition The Migrant which is currently showing at the Chapel Gallery, Objectifs...
© » KQED
SF IndieFest Is a Valentine to Movies and Movie Lovers | KQED Skip to Nav Skip to Main Skip to Footer upper waypoint The Do List SF IndieFest Is a Valentine to Movies and Movie Lovers Michael Fox Feb 8 Save Article Save Article Failed to save article Please try again Email Steve Zahn in the SF IndieFest opening night film, 'LaRoy,' playing Feb...
© » KADIST
Miljohn Ruperto
2009Miljohn Ruperto’s silent video work Appearance of Isabel Rosario Cooper is an archive of ghosts...
© » KADIST
Shooshie Sulaiman
2005Shooshie Sulaiman’s pictures of unidentified figures initially appear alien and even monstrous: rendered hairless in unusual and even sickly colors, they stand in stark contrast to the aesthetic ideals of conventional portraiture...
© » FLASH ART
Twilight Oddities, Real Nightmares, Queer Errands, and Other Daydreams: The Gothenburg Biennial | | Flash Art Flash Art uses cookies strictly necessary for the proper functioning of the website, for its legitimate interest to enhance your online experience and to enable or facilitate communication by electronic means...
© » HYPERALLERGIC
Citing Silencing of Arab Voices, Artists Cut Ties With Art Canada Institute Skip to content Rana Nazzal Hamadeh, "Untitled" (2020), color digital photograph, inkjet on vinyl, 60 inches x 120 inches (image courtesy of the artist) A number of artists and curators have said they are cutting ties with Art Canada Institute (ACI) after the arts nonprofit was accused late last month of attempting to suppress the voices of a group of Arab and Muslim artists...
© » ARTMARKETMONITOR
Sotheby’s Builds Better Relationships in Las Vegas Brooke Lampley presents Oliver Barker with the traditional white gloves after a sold out auction The Thursday before Sotheby’s Saturday-night-in-Las-Vegas sale of 11 Picasso works from the Bellagio’s eponymous restaurant, Brooke Lampley was feeling more than a little “trepidation.” MGM Resorts International, the corporation that had bought Steve Wynn’s Mirage Resorts in 2000—including Wynn’s pet art-cum-luxury-dining-experience restaurant at the Bellagio decorated with a number of significant works by the Modern master—had decided to cash out on the art market gains of the last 20 years...
© » KADIST
Gan Chin Lee
2019In Studies of Chinese New Villages II Gan Chin Lee’s realism appears in the format of a fieldwork notebook; capturing present-day surroundings while unpacking their historical memory...
