Red Sabbath

Roman gem depicting a handshake (dextrarum iunctio - a symbol of unity (e.g. in a political or wedding context)). In the background, a herald’s staff, a poppy flower on a long stem, and an ear of corn on either side

1st century CE

“Apocalypse” is the brainchild of Thomson & Craighead, a pair of artists known for their work using sound, video and the internet. The pair had the perfume produced in a special limited edition for a new show in London that finds inspiration in everything from nuclear waste to self-help.

Visitors to the show are given a sample of the doom perfume, which incorporates olfactory elements found in the Book of Revelation. Also known as The Apocalypse of John, the Biblical doomsday book is filled with over-the-top imagery of a terrifying end of days filled with blood, fire, and wrathful judgments. Everything from earthquakes to dried-up rivers to a vengeful beast can be found in the book, which some take to predict the end of the world and others take as a metaphor for the persecution of early Christians.

The perfume incorporates four of those elements: blood, which is represented by aldehydes, lactones and metallic rose materials; thunder, which is represented by ozone and earthy scents; earth, which is represented by things like patchouli and oakmoss; and flesh burned with fire, which is represented by notes of cumin and other scents. The fragrance is “at once highly desirable and sickening,” say the artists.

"Bullet" is the second single released by the horror punk band the Misfits.

The four tracks comprising the EP, "Bullet", "We Are 138", "Attitude", and" Hollywood Babylon" was released June 1978

The Carpentras Stele, the first ancient inscription ever identified as "Aramaic", 4th century BCE.

The Carpentras Stele is an Egyptian-style funerary monument inscribed in Aramaic and now preserved in the Bibliothèque Inguimbertine in Carpentras, France. It commemorates a woman named Taba, depicting her before the underworld god Osiris and later as a deceased person being prepared for burial. The inscription follows Egyptian funerary traditions, praising her virtuous life and wishing her well in the afterlife.

Young Woman Reading a Book of Hours by Ambrosius Benson, c. 1495

Gold copper silver alloy pectoral, Moche culture, Peru, circa 1-800 AD

Fritz Klimsch - Regard vers le soleil, ca. 1950

Spinnen

Jan Fabre