Anna Dumitriu’s biotech jewelry
A glittering, heart-shaped gold pendant set with sapphires on a wide bow of cream-colored silk as a necklace; pearls in red, orange, golden yellow and milky white, strung into long strands and embroidered onto cloth backed with dusty blue lace: The designs of these two magnificent and mysterious pieces of jewelry send us back to earlier centuries – but their added value, invisible to the eye, is less associated with mystical thinking than with modern medicine: antibodies.
In the Middle Ages, necklaces and amulets were widely used as agents of an art of healing. But does this healing practice also hold merit today? It sounds more like squaring the circle, like alchemists of old once strove to do in their search for gold. In this case, however, the jewelry is a product of the laboratory, designed and created by contemporary artist Anna Dumitriu, who collaborates with scientists from various disciplines in the field of biotechnology for her creations. Bacteria and other microorganisms as well as the building blocks of life itself are often at the center of her research; her aim is always to link the history of culture and science with the present day as well as the development of new processes and technologies – and to make esthetics an instrument of knowledge.
While this path has led her from the DIY biohacking art scene to high-end laboratories, to this day she has remained true to her style of a “bacterial sublime”, which she developed early on and which is characterized by a flamboyant combination of beauty and horror. Initially, the bacteria were mostly expressed figuratively, but Dumitriu soon literally wove them into the fabric of the clothes she displayed in her exhibitions. Titles such as “Infective Textiles” can make radiantly white lab coats decoratively embroidered with protozoa seem suspicious – and that applies even more so for historical costumes covered in patches and stains that go by the name of “Syphilis Dress” or “Cholera Dress”. These are items of clothing that Dumitriu has treated with the household remedies for the respective diseases popularly used in former times, as well as impregnating them with antibodies extracted by means of biomedical processes or from dormant pathogens.
Each individual element of such a piece of work unlocks knowledge in a sensual way: The “Plague Dress” created in 2018, for example, is sewn from silk dyed with walnut husks. Around the end of the 17th century, these were recommended for treating the plague, at a time when sewing workshops in England were considered to be the site of major outbreaks because the infectious fleas arrived in the silk bales. The artist, in turn, appliqued DNA from the bacterium Yersinia pestis to the splendid floral embroidery on the bodice, which the observer would like to believe was previously disarmed in the laboratory. The lavender sheaves tucked into the neckline and scattered around the dress resemble the nosegays worn in past times to ward off the plague.
But Anna Dumitriu’s work does not always involve dangerous pathogens: Her exhibition “Fermenting Futures”, curated in collaboration with a research institute at the University of Vienna, focuses on yeast bacteria, which can be used not only to produce bread, beer and wine and to preserve food but also to develop vaccines; they meanwhile also play a role in the search for new materials. However, wherever costly fabrics and exquisite jewelry beguile the senses, the observer can almost certainly be drawn into the sublime field of tension that the artist creates between the history of medicine and its future.
For example, the gracefully draped necklace bears the evocative title “Engineered Antibody” (2016); the 452 beads shaped by hand from PVC modeling clay contain an antibody purified from the blood of an HIV patient, while the structure of the necklace itself and the loops attached to the fabric sculpt the amino acid folds of the antibody protein so that it is both physically and figuratively part of the necklace. The yarn and fabric used for the base material were dyed with the same blue dye that makes the proteins visible in the laboratory.
The heart-shaped pendant from 2022, on the other hand, is recommended as a protective amulet against the Black Death. Both its name – “Zenexton” – and its design seem to transport the observer back to a time when medicine and magic still went hand in hand. First mentioned by Paracelsus as a remedy against “pestilence”, “Zenexton” was later described in detail by Oswald Croll in his “Basilica Chymica” (1609) – and from then on found its advocates well beyond the 17th century. The heart-shaped, golden capsule described in the historical texts, in which dried, powdered toads, the menstrual blood of virgins collected at full moon, crushed sapphires, arsenic and all manner of herbs were to be filled, finds its visual echo in Anna Dumitriu’s amulet in the form of 3D-printed, gold-plated brass decorated with sapphires; between warty blisters reminiscent of the skin of the poor toads – which were sacrificed for the purpose of homeopathic magic because they resembled plague buboes – a full moon can be seen along with dripping blood. However, it is the contents that promise to be far more helpful against the plague, which has still not been eradicated: The amulet contains a vaccine developed by the British immunologist Christine Rollier.
Bearing in mind the recent pandemic, Dumitriu’s “Zenexton” appears topical in many respects: As tempting as a magic amulet might seem – if in doubt, with a close eye on plague and cholera, wouldn’t we rather trust the vaccine than a mixture of ground toad skin and menstrual blood?
About / Anna Dumitriu (born 1969 in Shoreham-by-Sea, UK) lives and works in Brighton. Since graduating from the University of Brighton, she has devoted herself consistently to artistic research. Her sculptures, installations and performances, which often focus on bacteria and viruses and combine traditional craft techniques with the latest biotechnology processes, reflect her specialty, BioArt, and she often works together with research institutes as an “artist in lab”. Her projects, for which she has received numerous prizes and grants, can be viewed at international festivals and exhibitions.
The author / Verena Kuni is Professor of Visual Culture at the Institute for Art Education.
kuni@kunst.uni-frankfurt.de
