Pastorianum

"Pastorianum" (2018) made using raw flax, antique human hair wreaths, Clostridium difficile impregnated cloth (sterilised), bacteria from a Winograsky Column, embroidery, linen damask, flax seeds and resin. The work explores linen as a metaphor for our relationship with biotechnology and ecology focussing on its relationship to witchcraft and medicine. As the first biofabric linen is created through an interaction with nitrogen fixing bacteria and plant fibres. The bacterium responsible is Clostridium pasteurianum, originally called Clostridium pastorianum - literally translating to a spindle from the field discovered by Sergei Winogradsky in 1893. More recently Clostridium difficile has become a human pathogen. The work also contains flaxen coloured hair wreathes (made from the hair of dead people), the creation of which was a Victorian era mourning ritual mainly in North America.