The End Is Nigh?

With 2012 on the horizon — the reputed end date of the world according the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, as if you didn't know — doomsday theories abound in popular media. And White Flag Projects (4568 Manchester Avenue; 314-531-3442 or www.whiteflagprojects.org ) has just the exhibit to ease your mind. Prethunderdome, a collection of works from Ronnie Bass, Rolf Belgum, Andrew Bush, Jose Davila, Stan Gaz, Andrew Guenther, Karen Gunderson and Jason Lazarus, explores themes on the collapse of civilization. To be clear, the works are not images of destruction or catastrophe; instead they express abstract ideas of threats to civilization and our emotional response to the them. For example, Gunderson's paintings depict turbulent scenes of water fighting against itself (the idea of endangered natural resources), while Jason Lazarus' photograph of a flaming warning posted on a dark hillside inspires a chilling sense of anticipatory terror. Prethunderdome includes a Doomsday Reading Room, two pre-Columbian Nayarit figures (representing a culture long ago destroyed) and interpretations of Vangelis' score for the classic dystopian film Blade Runner. The show opens with a free public reception from 7 to 10 p.m. on Saturday, November 7, and remains up through Saturday, December 19. White Flag Projects is open on Wednesday and Saturday.
Wednesdays, Saturdays. Starts: Nov. 4. Continues through Dec. 19, 2009