The Fifth Sun

Mixed-media installation: ink on hemp fabric (2.2 m diameter), video projection and sound, 9 min 44 sec, 2017

Many creation myths describe the universe as moving through vast cycles, a rhythmic coming and going shaped by creation and destruction. In Aztec cosmology four such eras—four “suns”—have already passed; we now live beneath the fifth.

The Fifth Sun considers our bond with the planet by portraying it as a suspended frame drum, or daf in Saudi Arabia. Each ink impact on its surface marks a human action, setting the illustrated landscape trembling. This fifth epoch is said to be one of motion, a time when the earth will rattle and lives may be sacrificed in hopes of silencing it. War, conflict, greed, and rapid environmental loss all make our Fifth Sun beat like a drum.

Part of the Safar group show, curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath.
Music by Mary Rapp.