Serving as both the prologue and epilogue for Xanadu, Exit Strategy, 2005, features Rapture- ready prophets such as Charles Manson, Brenda McCann of Manson’s Family, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Shoko Asahara and Luc Jouret of the Order of the Solar Temple. Addressing topics such as death, suicide, the President, and the dire state of the world as they perceived it, the video contains audio and video excerpts from some of their final hours, including Jim Jones’ suicide sermon at Jonestown, David Koresh’s 911 call with the FBI, and Marshall Applewhite’s farewell video, among other tragic and telling moments.

 

By contrasting the familiar and the fringe, the popular and the notorious, Xanadu suggests a displacement between the euphoric idyll promised by disco and the chilling reality of collective human brutality.

 

* Exit Strategy is a single-channel video that also serves as the 4th channel of Xanadu. In installation, it plays separately from the synchronized 3-channel work.