Despite worldwide financial panic, ecological disasters and general global malaise, the exhibition LA 2019: CULTS, COLLECTIVES & COCOONING conjures a surprisingly positive image of what Los Angeles might be in the near future. Presenting an alternative to the doom-ridden scenarios of future dystopias prefigured in speculative fictions Blade Runner, Fahrenheit 451, and Soylent Green, the exhibition instead suggests a destiny of collaborative and community based ventures that focus on the group rather than the individual experience. LA 2019: CULTS, COLLECTIVES & COCOONING pictures a prospective Los Angeles that rejects its anonymous sprawling suburbs in favor of a return to village life with all the allegiances and intimacy that entails. Neighborhoods become self-sustaining and self-governing entities that rely on home production and barter, rotation of back-yard crops and fertilizing their vegetable gardens with the guano of patio-raised chickens. Business is conducted between hamlets traveled to and from by bio-fueled vehicles, delivery tricycles, horses and donkeys. Featuring objects, installations, photography, drawing and video works by emerging and established artists the exhibition explores three related themes: real and fictional intentional communities, the power of the collective versus the individual, and sustainable solutions for future living. Inspired by historical and fictional utopias Thomas Moores Utopia, Samuel Butlers Erewhon, B.F. Skinners Walden II and Octavia Butlers Parable of the Sower the exhibition explores current attitudes towards intentional communities and the desire to commit to alternative belief systems typified by the Unarius UFO cult. Historic art collectives such as Bauhaus and the more recent Rotterdam-based Atelier van Lieshout are examined in relation to the emergence of contemporary artist groups. Privileging communal art-making activities, diverse practices and disciplines, and increased audience participation these collectives champion the power of the collective over the individual. Artists weary of the hefty bank-balance approach to green living, explore alternative sustainable solutions for a future lifestyle that focuses on affordable, practical resolutions that reference the past as much as they do the future.