Two millennia after Mount Vesuvius encased Pompeii in volcanic ash, the ancient Roman city faces a wildly different kind of spectacle. Surmounting cracked stone peristyles and standing guard inside domed basilicas, giant, hyper-saturated crustacean figures now command the archaeological landscape.

Scottish artist Philip Colbert—famously dubbed the “godson of Andy Warhol”—has officially launched Philip Colbert in Pompeii: Pop Mythology. Featuring more than 30 of his signature cartoon lobster sculptures, the installation represents the first contemporary sculpture exhibition hosted within the historic site in three decades. More notably, it marks the first time a contemporary artist has gained permission to install works directly inside Pompeii’s delicate domestic dwellings.

To the uninitiated, placing electric-hued, hyper-pop lobsters amidst the solemn grey stones of antiquity might seem like a provocative stunt. Yet Colbert’s obsession with the creature is deeply rooted in art history, sparked directly by one of Pompeii’s own celebrated treasures: the marine life mosaic from the House of the Faun. In that ancient tessellated masterpiece, an octopus entangles a lobster in perpetual marine combat—a vivid reminder that the lobster was an emblem of struggle, luxury, and mortality long before Pop Art adopted cartoon surrealism.

Colbert’s lobster acts as a conduit between digital-era hyper-consumerism and ancient storytelling. The artist treats Pompeii not as a static museum frozen in 79 C.E., but as an active cultural canvas suspended across eras.

From Perth to Pompeii: A Personal Archaeology

Colbert’s fascination with ancient artifacts began in childhood when his father took him to a Roman fort outside Perth, Scotland, to search for ancient coins and iron nails. That early thrill of unearthing tangible pieces of history resurfaced vividly when he first stepped into Pompeii’s basalt-paved streets.

In Pop Mythology, high-gloss stainless steel pillars mirroring classical columns stand alongside dark, oxidized steel robotic warriors. These speculative future relics ask viewers to consider what artifacts our present civilization will leave behind when today’s digital landscape eventually turns to dust.

Spanning the core ruins as well as outlying sites including the Villa of Poppaea, Villa San Marco, and Villa Arianna, Colbert’s installation transforms the ancient city into a living stadium of past, present, and speculative futures.