2012

Medium:
Spatial installation composed of a central kinetic textile piece and a series of framed experimental works exploring pigment extraction, transformation, and the cultural symbolism of red

Artworks in the series:
Roșu / As a Curtain
Textile, irrigation system, controller device, red dye extracted from Dactylopius coccus insects, stainless steel, acrylic glass container
400 × 600 × 30 cm

Tests / Through Red /
Textile samples, natural dye from Dactylopius coccus, tannic acid, basic aluminum acetate, hydrochloric acid, copper (II) sulfate, sodium hydrogen sulfate, silicone S1, metal pins, polystyrene foam board, wooden frame, glass
52.6 × 63 × 5.5 cm

Study for Red / from pH 3 to pH 7 /
234 Dactylopius coccus insects, textile, pins, polystyrene foam board, wooden frame, glass
53.7 × 42.5 × 5.5 cm

Natural Red
4900 Dactylopius coccus insects, textile, pins, polystyrene foam board, wooden frame, glass
152.5 × 152.5 × 5.5 cm

Self-Portrait (Head, Torso, Left Arm, Right Arm, Left Leg, Right Leg)
Textile, natural dye extracted from Dactylopius coccus insects, tannic acid, basic aluminum acetate, hydrochloric acid, silicone S1, metal pins, polystyrene foam board, wooden frame, glass.
328.1 × 328.1 × 5.5 cm (Head 102.7 × 102.7 × 5.5 cm; Torso 102.7 × 152.7 × 5.5 cm; Left Arm 102.7 × 87.7 × 5.5 cm; Right Arm 102.7 × 87.7 × 5.5 cm; Left Leg 122.7 × 92.7 × 5.5 cm; Right Leg 122.7 × 92.7 × 5.5 cm)

Installation view:
Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia, 2012

Work Description:
Roșu (Romanian for red — and the artist’s maternal surname) unfolds as a spatial installation and a series of material experiments that explore the chromatic, historical, and symbolic dimensions of red. At the center stands a curtain continuously irrigated by pumps through a cartridge containing a natural dye extracted from the cochineal insect (Dactylopius coccus). The fluid gradually transforms the textile from white to deep red in a slow, programmed cycle. Surrounding the curtain are framed studies and a full-scale self-portrait made of damask — an anatomical reconstruction of the artist’s own skin, fragmented into separate body parts. Each section is displayed individually, suggesting the body as both specimen and vessel of transformation.

The cochineal red — historically known as carmine or cardinal red — bears centuries of cultural resonance: power, love, violence, and ritual. Once a closely guarded Venetian secret and a symbol of royal and ecclesiastical authority, its meaning has shifted through time — from satanic to divine, from the color of prostitution to that of socialism. Today, it reappears in cosmetics and the food industry. Vujičić reclaims this charged pigment as a metaphor for both personal and collective history, embedding within it the dualities of vitality and mortality.

In Roșu, color becomes both substance and narrative — a biochemical trace connecting the organic and the synthetic, the intimate and the historical. The self-portrait, pinned and encased beneath glass, is sealed with a thick layer of silicone that preserves the dye’s intensity. Like the insects themselves — bodies extracted for pigment, fixed in time — these fragments become quiet relics of transformation, carriers of both memory and decay.

Photo credits:
Damir Žižić