Diptych, 420 cm x 310 cm, construction tarp, Polyvinyl Chloride

Women in Art 1, Fatart, Schaffhausen, 2018
Galerie Nicola von Senger, Zürich, 2019
la rada, spazio per l’arte contemporanea, Locarno, 2019
love ArtisteDici, Genève, 2020

Opuntia ficus-indica or Nopal, native to Mexico, is a survival plant that Angela Marzullo uses symbolically in FICA DE BARBARIA. Makita cultivates the knowledge of this species, the prickly pear – fica in Latin expresses both the fig tree and the female sex. In the past, this plant was used to delimit territorial plots. As for the feminist slogans written in cochineal red on fig trees, they come from a mainly female parasite of the same name (Coccoidea), that feed on prickly pear trees. The insect produces carminic acid to protect it from predatory insects. Carminic acid can be extracted from the insect’s body and eggs to make an expensive red colored dye, scarlet or cochineal carmine. It is an ambiguous, even double color. It if is often associated with blood, hell and lust, above all it points to passionate feelings, positive as well as negative: love or anger, sexuality or danger. It is an energetic, penetrating, and incisive color. 

Text Sahra Zürcher
Photo Sandra Pointet