tour 11 of 21
Audio description tour
The Atomic Apocalypse, by the Linares family
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The Atomic Apocalypse is a modern installation by the Linares
family of Mexico City. It was created in 1983 and is part of a
Mexican tradition, which celebrates the annual festival of All
Saints and All Souls with a humorous and sometimes satirical
commemoration of the dead. Suspended on wires from the ceiling,
above the heads of visitors, are four papier-maché sculptures,
representing the four elements of the Biblical Apocalypse in
skeletal form.
There are different images for each of the four.
In the centre of the installation is a globe, with the land
masses painted in red ochre and fringed in green. The oceans are
pale blue, with the currents picked out in darker blue. Cloud
formations swirl over them, some in spiralling hurricanes. The
polar caps are splashes of white at the top and bottom. Seated on
the north polar cap is an almost life-size model of a human
skeleton, its white bones outlined in black, its jaws gaping. It
wears a crown cut out of gold paper, and a white paper cloak with
grey stripes hangs stiffly at its back. In its right hand is a
white missile with blue fins and warhead. In its left, a scythe
with a curved silver blade. The skeleton is Death.
In its orbit, but unmoving, the three other apocalyptic curses
are vividly brought to life.
Famine rides a giant locust. The locust is green, with the
sections of its underbelly picked out in yellow. Its slender
antennae quiver, its head, with black, segmented eyes, dips between
the jointed forelegs. The powerful jumping back legs are stretched
behind it. Its rider, Famine, is another white skeleton with black
outlines defining his bones. He wears a tall black conical hat,
like a witch's hat, and a purple cloak streams down his back. His
teeth are set in a deadly grin and he holds out a loaf of bread in
his right hand, while his left grips the reins of his insect
mount.
The third skeleton, Pestilence, rides a giant black turkey. The
bird's wings are spread and its grey, scaly legs end in vicious
talons. Its pink, mottled, un-feathered neck and head are curved to
strike, its yellow beak open and sharp. Seated between its wings is
Pestilence, yellow bones outlined with brown. Pestilence wears a
tall black magician's hat with a narrow brim and a white crescent
moon on the front. His cloak ripples around him, pale and dark
grey. His claw-like right hand raises a weapon, ready to hurl it
down towards the globe. The teeth are bared in a ghastly laugh of
triumph.
The fourth skeleton represents War. Like its Biblical
counterpart, this creature rides a red horse, but this horse is a
demonic fusion, with the head of a dragon. Its skin is blood red
and the surface is painted with lighter red swirls so that it seems
to seethe and churn like an atomic blaze. The eyes are yellow with
black pupils. A spark of white makes them glitter cruelly as they
stare down at the visitor. The jaws are open, showing sharp white
fangs, and a long pointed tongue flickers out, like a serpent's.
The beast's long mane and tail are the red and yellow of flames,
flying out behind it as it gallops through the sky, its legs
stretched, black hooves poised to thunder down onto the ground. War
rides bareback, white bones standing out starkly on a background of
scarlet, his right hand gripping a sword. On his head is a silver
helmet with curving black horns. His cloak is the red-brown of
dried blood. He wears a drooping grey moustache and a pointed grey
beard on his fleshless skull, and lines painted onto his empty eye
sockets give him an expression of savage rage.