Anna Dumitriu Blog

3rd March 2020

Anna Dumitriu has been working with Dr Carol Verheecke-Vaessen and the Applied Mycology Group at Cranfield University to develop and create an innovative new body of artworks around the theme of “Mysteries and Mycotoxins”. The project takes the form of an artistic exploration of mycotoxins and aims to raise awareness of their significant impact on […]

3rd February 2020

“The MRSA Quilt” (2011) was created by embedding squares of cotton calico in chromogenic agar. This bacterial growth medium contains a dye that is taken up by Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, causing them to grow blue in colour and stain the calico. The patterns on the squares are created using different tools and techniques in the […]

3rd March 2020

“Souvenir” (2022) is based on small purse, believed to have been made by a soldier who was convalescing in Egypt during World War I. The soldier embroidered the phrase “Souvenir of Egypt 1916” on the purse, and Anna Dumitriu has altered and added to the original embroidery with images of Vibrio cholerae bacteria and impregnated […]

31st January 2020

Since 2018 Anna Dumitriu held an artist in residence post with the National Collection of Type Cultures, the oldest and most historic collection of pathogenic organisms. She is developing a new body of work with the collection, telling stories and drawing threads between the history and future of microbiology. New works so far developed with the […]

29th January 2020

“The Hypersymbiont Dress” (2013-17) is stained and video mapped with bacteria that may have the potential to enhance us. It draws attention to ways in which our own bacterial flora or even pathogens, could be enhanced to turn us into human super-organisms, with improved creativity, improved health and even improved personalities. The concept of this […]

1st February 2020

The Communicating Bacteria Dress (2011) combines bioart, historical textile techniques, such as whitework embroidery, and 3D mapped video projections. The work was created by staining textiles using pigmented bacteria, which change colour when they send and receive communication signals. Bacteria have intricate communication capabilities, for example: quorum sensing (voting on issues affecting the colony and […]

31st January 2020

Quilts are a traditional way of passing down stories and the piece can also be used as a discussion tool to facilitate dialogue about this important threat. The “Antibiotic Resistance Quilt” (2017) extends and builds on Dumitriu’s MRSA Quilt project. This soft and cosy embroidered quilt hides a dark side; it uses actual infectious bacteria […]

27th January 2020

“Blue Henry” (2014) is a strangely beautiful altered object, an engraved sputum flask which would have been carried by tuberculosis (TB) patients in the past in order to collect infected sputum coughed up from their lungs, rather than spit it out. The piece is part of Anna Dumitriu’s Romantic Disease series. The Blue Henry “a […]

27th January 2020

This altered antique romantic era maternity dress has been stained with walnut husks, and embroidered with safflower and madder root dyed silk (front and hem), and Prontosil dyed silk (back shoulders). The neckline is decorated with madder root dyed flowers and the cuffs are trimmed with safflower dyed bows.  “The Romantic Disease Dress” (2014) is […]

27th January 2020

“The Romantic Disease: An Artistic Investigation of Tuberculosis” is a solo exhibition and ongoing project by Anna Dumitriu, with an accompanying events programme. Skip to “Pneumothorax Machine“ Skip to “Rest, Rest, Rest!“ Skip to”Romantic Disease Dress“ Skip to “Burden“ Skip to “Where There’s Dust There’s Danger“ Skip to “Blue Henry“ This project takes the form […]