The Discovery of Purple (La decouverte de la pourpre)

During the residency, Eškinja delved into the historical, mythological, and ecological aspects of purple pigment production, focusing on its origins and impact. Using discarded snail shells—biomaterial left over from ancient dye-making processes—he explored their transformation into a meaningful artistic medium.  The process reimagines the waste material as a foundational element of the artwork but also bridges historical narratives and contemporary ecological concerns. The residency allowed the artist to intertwine research, material experimentation, and artistic expression, resulting in visual artifacts that resonate with the myths, science, and social practices surrounding the discovery of purple.

The snail shells form a large mass of biomaterial discarded during production of purple pigment. In Eškinja’s work, this material is processed to become the foundation of his paintings/reliefs. The aim is to create a relief (or several reliefs) made using a mixture of calcium carbonate from the snail shells, combined with pigment and additives. The relief will embody different segments from the initial research into a visual artifact that reflects historical myths, scientific knowledge, and social rituals. The discovery of purple thus becomes a metaphor for optimism about future ecologies.

The purple pigment was produced using Murex snails (Hexaplex trunculus), which live in the Mediterranean Sea. Several thousand snails were required to produce just one gram of pigment. With one gram of pigment, only a small amount of fabric could be dyed. By the Middle Ages, the Phoenicians had entirely depleted the snail resources, making this pigment extremely rare as early as the Roman period. From the fall of the Roman Empire onward, in Europe, memories of this phenomenon were preserved through fragments in mosaics, myths, or later-discovered artifacts.

The myth of the discovery of purple, “La Découverte de la Pourpre,” was recorded in a sketch by Peter Paul Rubens. Based on this sketch, Theodor van Thulden created the painting “The Discovery of Purple,” which depicts Hercules and the nymph Tyro walking when Hercules’ dog breaks a snail shell, leaving a trace of purple color on its fur. This painting’s title serves as the origin and guiding thread of Eškinja’s work.

Igor Eškinja (born in 1975) lives and works in Rijeka. The main features of his work include the use of gallery space as a framework for defining the artwork and the affirmation of the imaginary as an authentic place of art. Eškinja’s works have been included in numerous international exhibitions, and he has presented his works at many solo exhibitions.