The pearly gates of heaven and fiery pits of hell unite with a bang through Feb. 29 at “Etern-a-Sin-e-Plex.” The 24-hour heaven-and-hell shopping mall is now on exhibition at the Lamar Dodd School of Art Main Gallery.

Featuring deliciously corrupt “Etern-a-tainment” and morally questionable “Hangover Hollow” serving “Sorrow on the Rocks,” this installation work by artist David Sandlin is shocking, hilarious and perfectly uncivil.

The gallery has been transformed into Sandlin’s meta-universe, with Plexiglas light boxes beaming seductive images from the walls and shadowy, wooden figures gawking from the ceiling moldings.

A heart-shaped gremlin beckons, “Love it up, y’all,” and at the farthest end of the gallery a monitor displays footage of the artist impersonating his focal character, Bill Grimm – an “everyman” selling goods like “The Seven Sips of Sin” shot glasses that are “Good ’til the Lust Drop.”

Sandlin rivals his sinful depictions with an array of religious images and biblical references. Some illustrations go both ways, such as his cocktail glasses that resemble the Holy Grail. The contrast represents “the idea that religion and sin, once two separate entities, have collided,” said Gallery Director Nora Wendl.

Sandlin attributed the majority of his inspiration to the American South.

Born in Belfast, Ireland, he recalls his childhood amid religious struggle and murmurs of a civil war. His family reflected the country’s divide over religion; his parents were Protestant, and his two sisters married Catholics.

When he was 15, his family moved to small-town Hanceville, Ala. There, he became aware that “Protestantism [was] still deeply embedded and present in American culture,” Sandlin said.

At the same time, he observed a contradictory presence of a culture fixated by pleasure, sex and indulgence. This dichotomy inspired Sandlin to fully explore morality using the South as his paradigm.

“I am an omnivore of culture; I find material anywhere and everywhere. But the South is the most baroque, over-the-top,” Sandlin said.

On whether he considered his work a social commentary, Sandlin said, “I think the more critical you are, the more patriotic you are.”

He said his initial purpose was to entertain viewers, and then compel them to think.

“His art is interactive. He really understands people and how to reach them,” Wendl said.

In addition to morality, Sandlin addresses homeland security, terrorism, war, elements of empires and the prospect of eternal vigilance. He describes his work as a sort of narrative of modern life with no particular chronology.

“I try to capture what kind of cultural baggage every generation passes on to the next one,” Sandlin said.

As a hybrid of Irish and American descent, Sandlin combines an Irish lilt and a Southern drawl. He has lived and worked in New York for the past 25 years and has exhibited globally and published several books of artwork.

Sandlin is the appointed Lamar Dodd Professorial Chair of 2007-08, an honor given by the University to artists of high distinction.