Just What Is It About The End of The World That Makes It So Appealing?

Many predictions are that we are living at the end of days. Nosferatu, the Mayan calendar, Kalki Bhagavan, The I Ching, Dresden codex and many others all point to the imminent and immediate Apocalypse (the year 2012) But this impending doom, also brings with it a demented sense of curiosity, elation, dismissal and relief from the conundrum of contemporary reality. I mean Just what is it about the end of the world that makes it so appealing?

Furthermore the Apocalypse has been anticipated since the birth of humanity and more recently by Hollywood films, books, media spectacle and general public chatter. Is it even worth considering anymore? Has it already happened and we aren’t aware of it? Shall we celebrate it? Is it something that we will watch from the comfort of our living room couches via satellite TV much like we watch the films that preceded it or news casts of man made catastrophes, or the world cup? For a global culture spinning further towards the secular with every hamburger sold or fundamentalist war fought, does it really matter?

The title of the exhibition riffs off Richard Hamilton’s seminal work Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? which was ironically produced for the exhibition This is Tomorrow, an early cross-disciplinary exhibition that explored pop and consumer culture’s impact on the world. Today, in a global culture fully swayed by popular and consumer trends how do we confront the final spectacle? This exhibition presents some artistic responses to this query.