YORKSHIRE NEWS
On the Yorkshire Life radar: events, openings and happenings across Yorkshire
ART FROM SCRATCH
James Owen Thomas uses recycled materials to create collages depiciting the natural world. He takes discarded scratch cards and repurposes them by sorting, tearing, cutting and separating patterns and symbols to develop a unique colour palette.
He will be at Mackenzie’s Farm Shop, Blubberhouses, on April 6, where he’ ll create a collage of the landscape based on the view he sees at Mackenzie’s. He is also running a workshop on April 13, 10-12 noon, with a springtime theme. jamesowenthomas.com
ALL THE ICONS
Swap the Easter bunny for a pink pig at a special event in Leeds. The Marks & Spencer archive, Marks in Time, invites you to a fun event during the Easter holidays. The M&S Archive, based at Leeds University, celebrates all things M&S, or Marksies, or St Michaels. Whatever you call the retailing favourite, it is hosting a trail with the promise of a free packet of Percy Pigs! Just head along and enjoy learning about the history of one of the most iconic high-street brands. April 2-5, M&S Archive, marksandspencer.com
Dressed to kill?
The magnificent Plague Dress takes centre stage at a fascinating exhibition which includes sculptures and installations made using, among other things, bacteria and DNA.
Anna Dumitriu’s masterpiece, the ‘Plague Dress’ ingeniously weaves textiles, technology and microbiolog y together, transcending boundaries bet ween art and science.
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).
Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds hosts the exhibition, called Fragile Microbiomes, exploring the intricacies of the microbial world through sculptures and installations made using bacteria, DNA, altered vintage objects, 3D printing, textiles, video and digital technologies.
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, and Make Do and Mend is 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.
Bacterial Baptism is 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. Runs until June 23, thackraymuseum.co.uk
OUR BOOKSHOPS A
