The Sanguinearts Network

THE END...

THE APOCALYPSE

PART 3 of An exhibition from the Sanguinearts Network

'Hell has three doors:

lust, rage and greed.'

Bhagavad-Gita

'New World Order devotionals are hawked by digital avatars who sell faithas a method by which followers can enrich themselves (Deepak Chopra, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success). Those who despair of locating a believable human shepherd subscribe to media-sponsored scriptures of angels, or aliens, or angelic aliens. In a universe where all is for sale, the dollar sign remains the sole remaining index of belief. The more dollar signs we collect behind our names the more we earn respect, even devotion.

'Movie Stars. Sports Stars. Murderers. Tabloid gossip. Pop culture noise is so ever present and overwhelming that it removes the ability in the masses to believe - let alone think about - anything. The inability to read, to contemplate, to consider, is in fact a new epidemic known as dyslogia, a disease caused by the devastating overflow of information.'

'The supranational corporation spreads its doctrine through the trance of the everyday, depriving the psychic slave of instinct and self-protection. Without a sense of self and self-respect, the individual reaches for a placebo in the never-ending array of corporate products. The placebo of 'entertainment' helps to expand the NWO icon of the $. Art police are not required in an environment that convinces the masses that the $ is their leader and sole determinant of behaviour and philosophy.'

Adam Parfrey

Whether we're heading for Armageddon brought on by a God or not, we have already made irreversable changes to the world we live in, some of which will destroy countless species, and many, even all of human existence: nuclear tests, CFCs, deforestation, pollution of air and water, and so on and so on. The global climate is changing, out of our control. We do not know if these are longer patterns of change in the world or as a result of our actions, but our civilisation will come under threat. This is the kind of Apocalypse which is Now.

But we should not fear cataclysmic change. Societies have come and gone, as have species. Change is all part of the bigger scheme; the individual person/place/race might be destroyed but the overall situation continues, cycles and circulates, on and on; like Yeats' 'Winding Gyre'[huh?]; perhaps heading towards a higher evolutionary stage. This still assumes humanity and earth as the centre of the universe. What about meteorites, like that which we now believe wiped out the dinosaurs? What about other lifeforms? When the end comes chances are we won't see it coming and we will be powerless to act - a fate like that of ants: flooded, gassed, stamped on....because something else is of greater importance, sacrificed for the greater good. And if our puny scientific understanding is correct, we (as energy and matter) are not destroyed, only recreated, reincarnated, in something new.

The End is Nigh. The Beginning is Nigh.

benjamin_sanguine

Winter Picnic

Summer's fallen golder and gone
and snow is fallen where it shone,
a glowing white as pure as gold,
and I am concertina'd in the cold.

The blanket's down. The banquet is
a bitter one: iced sandwiches,
iced cakes, iced fruits and icy meats.
This picnic is too cold for me to eat.

My mouth is sealed. I try to prise
my lips apart and keep my eyes
from closing into frozen folds
while I am shrilled, doubled up in cold.

A chill descends upon the spread,
a further chill - the snow is fed
on slow death as the Summer Sun
is sustained on hot sacrifice. I'm done.

I yank and strain to raise my glass
up from where it has frozen fast;
I stick it to my lips and drink -
and drink a cool toast to my full defeat.

Monoprints after Guernica by benjamin_sanguine

'The government of Hell, in mimicry of God's dominions, is divided into seven layers, each ruled by a constituency of devils dedicated to a particular vice. Each constituency has a representative in the court of demons who answers to the ruler of Chaos - the Prince of Darkness. There is an army, a navy, and a cavalry - even an infernal orchestra.

The Devil, Tom and Genevieve Morgan (1996)