Anna Dumitriu Blog

29th February 2020

“Ex Voto” (2016 onwards) is an ongoing participatory artwork and major installation that explores the impact of infectious diseases and antibiotics on our lives, created through the making of ‘votive offerings’ during drop-in story sharing workshop sessions. These secular ‘votive offerings’ reference those found in religious settings symbolising a wish or giving thanks for its […]

3rd March 2020

“The Hunt for New Antimicrobials” (2016-17) was a collaboration between Anna Dumitriu and Professor Maggie Smith and Stuart Priest to explore the urgent issue of antibiotic resistance and the research being undertaken at the University of York in the search for new antimicrobial substances. The artist’s residency led new body of artwork and a participatory […]

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 […]

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

“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 […]

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

“Where There’s Dust There’s Danger” (2014) takes the form of tiny needle felted lungs made from wool and household dust impregnated with the extracted DNA of killed Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB). The organisms have been rendered sterile using a validated process used in whole genome sequencing of TB. The lungs show various stages of the disease […]