Zone Rats: The Afterlives of the Fabulous Killjoys 2019

Curated by Mac Modean Greenberg
Production assistants: Jason Greenberg, Vicki Walden

The year is 2019, the place is California, and civilization has been reduced to almost nothing. In the middle of the Mojave Desert sits Battery City, a seemingly perfect utopia from far away, but in truth trapped in the iron grasp of the powerful and omnipresent corporation, Better Living Industries. But in the heart of this cold, clinically perfect world stirs dissent.

In a resistance led by the Fabulous Killjoys (Party Poison, Kobra Kid, Jet Star, Fun Ghoul and The Girl) those who are unhappy with the grey and lifeless existence under the thumb of BLI escape to The Zones, the six regions of desert that surround the limits of Battery City, to make a life for themselves full of color and wonder and chaotic joy.

This fictional universe is the brain-child of the band My Chemical Romance; the story debuted on their 2010 album Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys and via two music videos from that album, “Na Na Na” and “Sing.” Over the ensuing 9 years, MCR fans have taken the story and run with it, creating new characters, fan fiction and incredible visual art. Mac Modean Greenberg, an artist himself, has curated this show in celebration of the ongoing creative afterlife of this story, in this, the canonical year.

The exhibit opens on January 12 (just before the Full Moon Vaudeville — join us for snacks and conversation!), and remains up for viewing through the last day of Rhino, February 24.

Opening gala: SATURDAY, JANUARY 12 from 6:00-7:00pm

Prop Thtr
3502 N. Elston
Chicago, IL