 Robert Boyd, Heaven's Little Helper, 2005. Screening, "The Last Word", Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC, Jan. 21, 2012. |  Robert Boyd, Heaven's Little Helper (from Xanadu), 2005. Single-channel video, 5:30 min. |  Robert Boyd, Heaven's Little Helper (from Xanadu), 2005. Single-channel video, 5:30 min. |
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 Robert Boyd, Heaven's Little Helper (from Xanadu), 2005. Single-channel video, 5:30 min. |  Robert Boyd, Heaven's Little Helper (from Xanadu), 2005. Single-channel video, 5:30 min. |  Robert Boyd, Heaven's Little Helper (from Xanadu), 2005. Single-channel video, 5:30 min. |
 Robert Boyd, Heaven's Little Helper (from Xanadu), 2005. Single-channel video, 5:30 min. |  Robert Boyd, Heaven's Little Helper (from Xanadu), 2005. Single-channel video, 5:30 min. |
HEAVEN'S LITTLE HELPER
Introducing the theme of the Apocalypse to Xanadu, the video Heaven’s Little Helper, 2005, begins with an excerpt from Masada, a 1981 mini-series about the Zealots, a sect of Jews who defended their right to be free from an oppressive Roman regime through an act of mass-suicide. Fast- forwarding into “family” footage of seemingly wholesome hippies and children dancing in natural settings, the video marks the end of sunny popular culture in the U.S. with iconic images of the Manson Family. Continuing in this vein, it incorporates archival footage of some of the most infamous doomsday-cult gurus and their devout disciples including the Hello Kitty- flanked Shoko Asahara of Aum Shinrikyo, architect of the sarin gas attacks on Tokyo subways; the Reverend Jim Jones of the People’s Temple; Marshall Applewhite of Heaven’s Gate; and David Koresh of the Branch Davidians.
* Heaven's Little Helper is also exhibited as a single-channel video.