Thackray Museum Unveils Ground-Breaking Exhibition: Fragile Microbiomes

Thackray Museum of Medicine has announced the launch of its newest and most innovative exhibition, 'Fragile Microbiomes,' featuring the captivating works of internationally renowned artist Anna Dumitriu. This ground-breaking temporary exhibition is set to open its doors to the public on February 10th, 2024, offering a unique exploration of modern and contemporary art that delves into the intricacies of the microbial world. The exhibition includes sculptures and installations made using bacteria, DNA, altered vintage objects, 3D printing, textiles, video and digital technologies and will take place until 23rd June 2024.

About the Exhibition:

Fragile Microbiomes is a bold and thought-provoking showcase that transcends the boundaries of traditional art by seamlessly blending it with science. The exhibition is a testament to the transformative power of BioArt, an emerging art movement incorporating living media, such as bacteria, DNA and synthetic biology.

A highlight of the exhibition is Anna Dumitriu's masterpiece, the "Plague Dress." This stunning piece ingeniously weaves textiles, technology, and microbiology together, offering viewers a visceral experience that transcends the boundaries between art and science. Dumitriu's work contemplates the delicate balance between human health and the microscopic ecosystems that shape our world. The dress is stuffed and surrounded by lavender, which people carried during the Great Plague of London to cover the stench of infection. The silk of the dress references the Silk Road, a key vector for the spread of plague and appliquéd with 17th-Century embroideries, saturated with the DNA of Yersinia pestis bacteria (plague).

Other incredible items being shown include Microbe Mouth (a necklace with handmade porcelain teeth coated with glazes made from oral bacteria and with a tooth actually grown from a bacterium that produces tooth enamel), Zenexton (a 3D printed amulet that contains a newly developed vaccine against the plague), Disembodied Dysbiosis (a bubbling sculpture based on a living microbial ecosystem that scientists use to learn about the gut microbiome), Make Do and Mend (an altered antique wartime women’s suit. The holes and stains in the suit have been patched with silk and linen lace patterned with pink colonies of E. coli bacteria that have been genetically modified using a technique called CRISPR) and Bacterial Baptism (a vintage christening gown that tells the story of research into how the microbiomes of babies develop, with a focus on the bacterium Clostridioides difficile).

Across the rest of the museum, expect to find: Model (a video installation in collaboration with a digital artist Alex May that shows a gut model) in the Disease Detectives gallery; Hypersymbiotics™: Post Pandemic Edition (a strange apothecary box which draws together many of the artist’s past works) in the Apothecary; Syphilis Dress (a dress with embroideries impregnated with the sterilised DNA of the Nichols strain of the bacterium – Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum) outside the STI clinic; Ex Voto, 2016 onwards (‘votive offerings’ that are hung on ribbons, stained, or dyed with sterilised bacteria, including various species of antibiotics) in the Apothecary.