As you enter the lobby of Nammos Resort Amaala, a large and impactful artwork signals that you've arrived somewhere truly unique.
Fields of Mytilus is an artistic interpretation of the vast ocean beds where mussels can gather in their millions. These underwater plains stretch across the seafloor in dense, living tapestries. The mussel fields in the Nammos lobby don't reach those staggering numbers, but approximately 45,000 shells have been placed across two sweeping wall sections – by hand, one by one.
A piece at this scale also means leading and training a new team on-site. At Amaala, we trained and led a dedicated team through every stage of the build, working together to complete the installation within a short and demanding timeframe. It's proof that Shellman can lead a project like this anywhere in the world, without needing to fly in our own crew to get it done.
Every commission like this starts long before the first shell is placed. We handle the sourcing, the technical planning, and the on-site logistics — coordinating directly with the client, architect and curator from concept through installation. At Amaala that meant working closely with Red Sea Global and Majaz Art Curators.
The shells have been sourced from aquafarming for the food industry; instead of ending up as waste they've turned into sustainable art. All shells have been carefully opened, the meat consumed, and the shells cleaned to reveal the subtle shimmer on their graphite gray inside.
Fields of Mytilus was designed and handcrafted on-site by Buster Eriksson and Mikael Hjärtsjö, with a trained on-site team completing the installation over two weeks in spring 2026. At 36 square meters it may well be the largest shell art installation in Saudi Arabia.
