the RICH MAN

a fictional world I constructed around an enigmatic, impossibly wealthy man. In this narrative, his vast fortune comes from a strange ritual he discovers in a small, cheaply printed book bought years ago from a street stall in Asia. Following its instructions, he gains limitless wealth — a secret he guards throughout his life.

For the final presentation, I created a museum-style installation that presents “evidence” of this man and his occult practice as if they were part of a real historical exhibition. The centerpiece is a seven-page accordion book designed to look like an inconsistent, low-quality street-market find: deliberately uneven typesetting, mismatched illustration styles on every page, and layered handwritten annotations supposedly written by the wealthy man while studying the ritual.

Two large paintings depict the visions he experiences while performing the ritual — the personified spirits of Poverty and Wealth revealing themselves to him. I also created an oracle device from his practice: a sculptural object containing illustrated prophecy tiles. In the myth, one chants the spell, spins the device, and reads whichever raised tile appears. I designed it in Cinema 4D and 3D-printed it, basing its form on the material-swatch shape from my own home printer.

The most unexpected outcome was how believable the world became. When I shared the work without context, every friend assumed the man — and his ritual — were real. That unquestioned belief became an essential part of the project, revealing how easily authority, mystique, and material evidence can fabricate an entire mythology.