Animals in The Anthropocene
These linocut prints were created based on a research project by two scientist friends. As historians, they research the history of the use of animal resources for human purposes with a focus on global colonial entanglements.
The cochineal scale insect comes from Mexico and is mainly found on the prickly pear cactus, which is also native there. When crushed, the females secrete a red color that forms the basis for carmine or crimson red. Long before our era, the louse was used to obtain color. In order to make them usable in Europe, the Spanish colonial rulers brought them to the Canary Islands and bred the cactus there. Today the paint is mostly produced chemically, but the cochineal and the prickly pear cactus can still be found on the Canary Islands.
The horseshoe crab or horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) is a prehistoric species. It is native to the American Atlantic coast and is hunted there for its blood. Horseshoe crab blood is used medicinally to perform limulus amebocyte lysate testing, a test method for detecting bacterial endotoxins. This is used to test vaccines, such as the Covid-19 vaccine, for their safety. Due to the use of the animals by humans, both the Atlantic and Asian horseshoe crabs are now endangered species, even though their blood is now taken alive - albeit in liters. Their blood is sky blue due to the oxygen transporter hemocyanin.