1994 „Exitus Letalis“
60,000 cochinilla lice on paper:
The quasi-monochrome painting was possible through the lice’s loss of life for their pigment – they were killed directly on the paper, dyeing the picture. Beauty and disgust lie close together. The cochineal red painting and the expressive gesture of sacrifice become one picture. The ambivalence lies in taking the lice’s lives in order to honor their individual lives at the same time. Sacrifice is an act that humans have been engaged in for thousands of years. Cochineal lice were already used as a dye by the Romans. They were bred on cactus plantations for centuries for their pigment in shades of orange, crimson and purple.
