What is it about the End of the World that Makes it so Appealing?, group exhibition (curated by Mathieu Borysevicz).

V Art Center (2/F, Building 3, 50 Moganshan Lu). Exhibition dates: Nov 24 Dec 31, 2012. by Daniel Szehin Ho Curated by Mathieu Borysevicz, this group show treats viewers to a range of paintings, videos, installations, and performance about the end of the world. With the title riffing off Richard Hamiltons Just What is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?, the show is squarely oriented towards a culturally mediated vision of the end times rather than an introspective pondering of collective finitude altogether fitting given the pseudo-rational belief in the 2012 Mayan Apocalypse (which one must be a little idiotic or delusional to truly believe in, much like the Rapture). Thus the exhibition, thoughtfully organized, examines not only the apocalypse but presents a biting satire of a world of simulacra and cultural ordure avant le dluge. Much of the show is rather over-the-top in tone, like Hu Xiangchengs bomb installation (Just what is it about the end of the world that makes it so appealing, 2012) hanging over Ma Dahas installation, The Second to Last Supper (Was One Helluva Party)(2012) with its detritus of a dinner before the End, or the Pop religiosity in works by Zhang Lehua and Chris Gill. Christopher Draeger & Reynold Reynolds video piece, The Last News (2002), stood out for serving a satire of media (mis)representation in the aftermath of 9/11, presenting a fictional live broadcast of the end of the world, nodding at both the seeming prescience of Hollywood disaster flicks and the cynical manipulation of collective affective shock for political (and martial) aims. Certainly, this might feel like ancient history in the post-Bush, post-Lehman Brothers world, where new adversaries have emerged out of the woodwork. Girolamo Marri & Chen Hangfengs performance piece Join me for I have seen the LED light of the Hanpocalypse!, 2012) takes a jocular, almost slapstick look at the end of the West a Chinese-dominated future though the cleverest element was probably lost to most of the audience, involving subtle mistranslations by the Communist translator in a business suit. Finally, there is a riotous video by the emerging artist collective Double Fly (Double Fly Saves the World, 2012): think Jackass meets MTV meets Stephen Chow. The specter of the end of the world is so appealing because it jolts our common sense and provides grist for inane entertainment and Schadenfreude. As a particular species of dystopia, it allows us to glimpse at the horizons of our worldview and gestures at the possibility of other worlds, all the while recalling our shared

existence through our collective finitude. This ecstatic awareness of other possibilities melts away a blithe belief in progress which is needed as much in post-crisis America as in Hobbesian, post-totalitarian China.