This project is a design of a temporary exhibition for a sculpture named  “For the love of God” by a British artist Damien Hirst. The sculpture was made of a human skull of a European man living between 1720 and 1810 casted in platinum with 8,601 flawless diamonds and a pear-shaped pink diamond located in the forehead.

The design concept revolves around an idea of an insatiable greed, overindulgence and walking over bodies for material enrichment, consciously ignoring the damage caused in a pursuit of the material wealth.

Inspiration came from dictators, oil magnates and oligarchs as well as certain pharmaceutical companies, food companies, etc. Specifically, we used Tamerlane’s (April 1336 – 18 February 1405) fear instilling tactic of massacres and building towers of human skulls in order to keep rebellions at bay and to keep concurred nations in a constant state of fear.

We also got our inspiration from a legend of 3 final wishes of Alexander the Great with the final wish being to let his hands hang out of a coffin, as he was carried to his grave, to show the people that with all the wealth he acquired, he was still leaving the world in empty hands.

The visitors to the exhibition are greeted in a very luxurious reception area with a glass of champagne, further they have a choice of “Life” or “Death” tunnels, which are the same but are separated with a matt glass wall to create a feeling of something different going on in the other tunnel.

The luxurious feeling continues until  “Waking up to reality” zone in which black and white photos of war scenes, children who lost their parents, Chinese assembly lines, etc. are projected on the wall with sounds which would accompany such events. Once they pass this area, the visitors find themselves walking out of a tower of skulls in a “Reality” zone.  Here we created a museum-like atmosphere with images of 21st  century “civilized” crimes framed in golden frames.

Eventually, the visitors arrive in a black “Skull” room where next to a skull sculpture we placed a coffin-like chandelier of a headless human skeleton with hands hanging out of the coffin.

From here the visitors proceed to the exit area.

 

 

Design group: Nilufar Pulatova, Jacquiline Tamm (www.homesweethomebyj.com) and Isabel Nilson.