Prelude to the End

The huge curtain rises, and here comes the third and the final episode:  a devastating, sad and melancholic and heart wrenching story of our Mother Earth, and her “Prelude to the End”. In this final episode we see obviously a very tragic moment for humanity and life itself. It is the very last trip of our creator, the real mother of all of us, the great and unique Mother Nature. It is a trip to the unknown world of nothingness, to the unfathomable, to the nullity, to the total extinction and nothingness.  Let’s call it the world of death, if there is such a thing?

The very first thing that captures our attention in all this dramatic scene is the capturing arch of life, although architecturally speaking it is totally modern and more geometric and almost up to date. We should admit that progress of man combined with the element of time, puts its fingerprint on everything! Today, maybe as a progressive and modern architect, I see it that way, and not as an old stony or brick arch, such as a Persian, Roman or Greek kind of arch. An example is the highest and biggest hanging arch of the world, Taghe Kasra, (or Kasra Arch in English). It is a masterpiece of old architecture in the Middle East, still standing after thousands of years despite the presence of all the disastrous elements of time and weather, rain, wind, heat, sand and earthquakes.

We see Mother Nature, lying down gracefully on her deathbed, under the arch of life, in a very sad and crowded scene. Her devastated mourners include all kinds of her children. She is among the good and evil sons and daughters of hers, a swarm of humanity in tears, treating the sad occasion as a painful wake. On the contrary, we see that some are joyful and happy, while laughing, singing, playing and dancing and acting childish and stupid. These are the people that somehow believe in the afterworld, or as we said before, a second world, a world of death that we should never forget.

There are even a bunch of clowns in the middle of design on the left side, trying to carry her small coffin to heaven or bringing it up to the pearly gates, in which some of us still believe. Throughout this entire scene, as usual we see watches and clocks without indicating arrows, numbering and hands to indicate the passage of time. It seems that here and in this very tragic moment the entity of time is almost stopped forever.  For example, in the front, there are two innocent frogs dancing on a big clock, which acts as a big stage. The clock, as usual, has no hands on it. However, the two innocent frogs are mournfully celebrating the big event of their mother earth, where the ceremonial wake is taking place.

At the top left, we also see a small innocent angel, peeing on the surface of a big watch, yet with no hands. The dear angel is hoping to stop time so that her mother does not go and giving her the chance to be around and a bit longer with all of them. The clock without hands is a particularly clear metaphor for the desire for life to be timeless. They all have a wishful desire to stop the time from running and saving or staying more with their natural mother. No matter what, I guess the end may come brutally and inevitably anyway.

Below the little angel there is a very erotic and happy devil who is playing a small harp to entertain the crowd of mourners and maybe to make them laugh. Who knows, maybe for him it is the victory of evil over good. Alas, it is a disastrous day, a kind of judgment day, let’s say an Armageddon. It is an apocalyptic, destructive and volcanic day which is symbolized by the figure of a “volcano-man” at the very top.  He is, another of Mother Nature’s sons, who is looking downward with immoral shame through his disastrous eruption, annihilation and ashes. (More description is available)