It is said that the written word has the ability to communicate an experience as powerfully as that of seeing an event first hand. In this brief, it required me to translate a first-hand account into a typographic installation that communicated that experience.

 

This installation aims to explore the idea of hidden beauty—what is beautiful? And to whom? Inspired by the chapter ‘The First Snake’ from Kuki Gallmann’s autobiography, the installation hopes to immerse visitors in Gallmann’s world and allow them the opportunity to discover the hidden beauty of snakes that her son Emanuele, often spoke of. 

 

The installation also plays on perspective, positioning the audience as Gallmann—who over the years tried to understand her son’s dangerous passion, but always had a foreboding sense that it was this passion that would eventually kill him. As she writes “It was just once I saw the beauty. Too late”, so too for the audience who can only see the word ‘beauty’ from the level 2 balcony, once they’ve left the installation space.