Shahpour Pouyan finds inspiration in the different iterations of the dome as an architectural motif, coupling national variations of the structure with research into his own genetic heritage to fashion monuments to human civilisation. This specific series of ceramic architectures is conceived as reliquaries that straddle the line between dream and death: influenced by constructions of various styles, they take on a chimerical form on which rests a human skull acting as a cupola. Intended as monuments, these works somehow convey the memory of ancestral cults where skull caps could be used as chalices for libations, with the idea of enclosing souls. In keeping with the vanitas tradition, the representation of death through the medium of a skull reveals the emptiness of all human endeavour.