![]() ![]() The silk that the dress is made of references the Silk Road link, but also the fact that the first and worst affected tradespeople to suffer in the Great Plague of London were the cloth workers who received the imported fine silks and linen. The roll, a piece of padding typically worn under the skirt to puff it out, contains a pungent mixture of herbs and spices that would have been stuffed into beak-like masks of Plague doctors. “Plague Dress” installation view at 6th Guangzhou Triennial at Guangdong Museum of Art The dress stuffed and surrounded by bunches lavender which were historically carried under people’s noses during the Great Plague of London to cover the stench of infection, and prevent the disease, which was believed to be caused by ‘bad air’ or ‘miasmas’. “Plague Dress” installation view at the Rijksmuseum Boerhaave (Image credit: Fred Ernst) The NCTC is the oldest and most historical collection of pathogenic bacteria in the world. The dress is appliqued with original 17th century embroideries which Anna Dumitriu has impregnated with the DNA of Yesinia pestis bacteria (Plague), which she extracted from killed bacteria in the laboratory of the National Collection of Type Cultures (NCTC) at the UK Health Security Agency (formerly Public Health England) where she is artist in residence. This 1665 style “Plague Dress” (2018) is made from raw silk, hand-dyed with walnut husks in reference to the famous herbalist of the era Nicholas Culpeper who recommended walnuts as a treatment for Plague.
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