Merlin Reichart

The sculpture is a replica of the light sign at Hamburger DOM, a fair at the center of Hamburg. The name of the fair derives from the word “Dom” (ger. cathedral), since it began in front of Marien Cathedral in Hamburg in the 11th century. While the original sign transports associations of lightness, leisure and “fun ahead”, my sculpture uses a wordplay to reverse the message. In pop culture, the word doom gained fame from the 1993 computer game by the same name. Today, we connect it mainly to the phenomenon of “doom-scrolling”, where people consume too much bad news about the state of the world, which causes depression.

In the face of climate change, ongoing and erupting wars, financial crisis and overall insecurity about the future, it’s hard to be optimistic, especially for younger people. The sculpture takes up on the mindset of a generation, that grows up in times of permanent crisis and a highly accelerated lifestyle.