Toying With Catastrophe

“Vomiting uncontrollably, together with the stench of my breath, my phlegm curdles. As my tongue flays to pieces, my headache intensifies, and my eyes have become blind.”

NEW YORK

Other animals have done it.

African elephants have been known to flatten the same forests they depend on for survival.

The rabbits of Laysan Island in Hawaii once ate themselves and a dozen other species to extinction.

Our species could prove self-destructive, too. All it might take is 6 billion of us demanding suburban America's toys.

The work of Takashi Murakami, Japan's most famous artist, paints a convincing picture of the modern consumer as lemming. We glimpse the cliff ahead but can't resist its pull. That vision makes '© Murakami,' the massive retrospective organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and now at the Brooklyn Museum, one of the most gripping shows in years. Read more