Backstage with
Artist / Designer
SABRINA MERAYO NUNEZ
TODAY, WE HAVE THE PLEASURE OF SPEAKING WITH SABRINA MERAYO NÚÑEZ, A MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST AND DESIGNER ORIGINALLY FROM TIERRA DEL FUEGO, ARGENTINA, IS CELEBRATED FOR HER INNOVATIVE FUSION OF ART, DESIGN, AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS. NOW BASED IN NEW YORK CITY, SHE EXPLORES THE INTERSECTIONS OF BIO-ART, BIOMATERIALS, AND FUNCTIONAL ART. HER WORK OFTEN INCORPORATES SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS LIKE COLLAGEN-BASED BIOPLASTICS, BLENDING TECHNOLOGY WITH ORGANIC FORMS TO CREATE THOUGHT-PROVOKING SCULPTURES AND INSTALLATIONS. SABRINA’S CREATIONS EVOKE THEMES OF TRANSFORMATION AND INTERCONNECTEDNESS, REFLECTING HER DEEP INTEREST IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMANITY, NATURE, AND TECHNOLOGY.
YOU DESCRIBE YOUR PRACTICE AS “CO-CREATING WITH NATURE.” HOW DO YOU PERCEIVE THE ROLE OF THE ARTIST IN THIS COLLABORATION?
THE ROLE OF THE ARTIST IN THIS CONTEXT IS TO CREATE THE CONDITIONS FOR NATURAL PROCESSES TO TAKE PLACE. THEN TO STEP ASIDE AND ALLOW CHANCE AND NATURE TO TAKE THEIR COURSE. A CLEAR EXAMPLE OF CO-CREATION IN MY WORK CAN BE SEEN IN THE GLASS BUBBLES I FILL WITH AGAR AGAR—A MATERIAL THAT IS ALSO A COMPONENT OF MY BIOPLASTIC FORMULA. BY BRINGING AGAR AGAR INTO CONTACT WITH SMALL PIECES OF BARK OR ROOTS, I ENABLE THE DEVELOPMENT OF MICROBIOMES.
HOWEVER, THESE MICROBIOMES EVOLVE BEYOND MY CONTROL, SHAPED BY VARIABLES I DELIBERATELY CHOOSE NOT TO REGULATE, SUCH AS TEMPERATURE, HUMIDITY, AND CIRCULATING AIR. THIS COLLABORATION EMBRACES UNPREDICTABILITY AND HIGHLIGHTS THE DELICATE BALANCE BETWEEN INTENTION AND SURRENDER.
IN YOUR HUMANS AS TREES PROJECT, YOU EXPLORED GENETIC AND MATERIAL CONNECTIONS BETWEEN HUMANS AND TREES. WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM THIS PROJECT ABOUT OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH NATURE?
THE HUMANS AS TREES PROJECT WAS DEVELOPED DURING MY RESIDENCY AT THE COALESCE CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL ART, DIRECTED BY PAUL VANOUSE, WITHIN THE UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO. OVER THE COURSE OF TWO MONTHS, I SET UP MY STUDIO INSIDE THE LAB AND, ALONGSIDE THE LAB MANAGER, IMMERSED MYSELF IN COUNTLESS EXPERIMENTS.
WHAT I LEARNED WAS PROFOUND: TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, WHICH OFTEN PRESENT THEMSELVES AS OBJECTIVE TRUTHS, ARE, IN REALITY, DEEPLY MALLEABLE CONSTRUCTS. I WAS STRUCK BY HOW DNA SEQUENCE DATABASES, ANALYTICAL PROGRAMS, AND BIOTECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS WERE ALREADY (EVEN BACK IN 2017) HIGHLY COMPUTERIZED, REMOVING THE HUMAN, MANUAL TOUCH FROM THE PROCESS. IT FELT LIKE ALCHEMY—TRANSFORMING THE PHYSICAL SUBSTANCE OF A LEAF THROUGH BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES UNTIL IT BECAME DATA.
THIS PROJECT ACTIVATED SOMETHING POWERFUL WITHIN ME—A DEEP AWARENESS OF THE MATERIALITY OF THE WORLD AND THE FORMIDABLE PROCESSES OF NATURE. IT ALSO SOLIDIFIED A POSITION FOR ME: ONE THAT QUESTIONS AND REFLECTS ON THE WAYS WE, AS HUMANS, INTERACT WITH AND ATTEMPT TO CONTROL NATURAL SYSTEMS.
“THIS PROJECT ACTIVATED SOMETHING POWERFUL WITHIN ME”
YOUR BACKGROUND SPANS BIO-ART, FURNITURE MAKING, AND FINE ARTS. HOW DO THESE DIVERSE DISCIPLINES INFLUENCE EACH OTHER IN YOUR WORK?
I’VE ALWAYS BELIEVED THAT NEW IDEAS EMERGE FROM UNEXPECTED COMBINATIONS OF SEEMINGLY UNRELATED THINGS. THIS PHILOSOPHY HAS GUIDED MY PRACTICE AND SHAPED MY FORMATION, AS I’VE CONTINUOUSLY FOLLOWED MY INTUITION—EVEN WHEN MY REASONING COULDN’T FULLY GRASP WHY I WAS TAKING CERTAIN PATHS.
BIO-ART, FURNITURE MAKING, AND FINE ARTS MAY APPEAR DISCONNECTED AT FIRST GLANCE, BUT FOR ME, THEY FLOW TOGETHER NATURALLY. EACH DISCIPLINE BRINGS ITS OWN LANGUAGE AND TOOLS, AND BY WEAVING THEM TOGETHER, I’M ABLE TO EXPLORE THE BOUNDARIES OF MATERIALITY, FORM, AND THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN THE NATURAL AND THE CONSTRUCTED. THIS CONVERGENCE ALLOWS ME TO APPROACH CREATION WITH A MINDSET THAT IS BOTH EXPERIMENTAL AND DEEPLY ROOTED IN A RESPECT FOR PROCESS, MATERIAL, AND THE INHERENT UNPREDICTABILITY OF NATURE
STUDYING WITH MASTER CABINETMAKERS DEEPLY CONNECTED ME TO THE MATERIALS USED IN CONSERVATION AND ANTIQUES—MATERIALS THAT HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ORGANIC, SOURCED FROM THE NATURAL WORLD, AND OFTEN PROCESSED MANUALLY. THIS HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE INSTILLED IN ME A RESPECT FOR THE TACTILE, TRANSFORMATIVE NATURE OF THESE SUBSTANCES.
IN PARALLEL, MY STUDIES IN ART APPRAISAL AND VALUATION INTRODUCED ME TO THE INTERSECTION OF SCIENCE AND AUTHENTICITY, TEACHING ME TO ANALYZE MATERIALS THROUGH BOTH HISTORICAL AND SCIENTIFIC LENSES. THESE PATHS, WHILE SEEMINGLY DIFFERENT, SHAPED MY ABILITY TO OBSERVE THE BEHAVIOR OF MATERIALS—THEIR AGING, THEIR MUTATIONS, AND THE STORIES THEY CARRY OVER TIME.
THEN, BIO-ART OFFERED ME AN OPPOSING PERSPECTIVE, SHOWING ME HOW TO APPROACH CREATION THROUGH THE LENS OF NATURE AND ITS BEHAVIOR. IT TAUGHT ME TO DISCOVER CREATIVE PATHWAYS THAT EMERGE NOT FROM CONTROL, BUT FROM UNDERSTANDING AND COLLABORATING WITH THE NATURAL PROCESSES THEMSELVES.
“I ENCOUNTERED THE SAME DIFFICULTIES MANY FACE”
YOUR USE OF BIODEGRADABLE BIOPLASTICS IS REMARKABLE. WHAT CHALLENGES HAVE YOU FACED IN DEVELOPING THESE MATERIALS, AND WHAT EXCITES YOU MOST ABOUT THEIR POTENTIAL?
THE CHALLENGES HAVE BEEN NUMEROUS. I STARTED BY EXPERIMENTING WITH RECIPES I FOUND ONLINE, SO I ENCOUNTERED THE SAME DIFFICULTIES MANY FACE WHEN BEGINNING TO WORK WITH BIOPLASTICS—NAMELY, THE MATERIAL’S LOW RESISTANCE, ITS PERMEABILITY TO WATER, AND ITS INABILITY TO HARDEN ENOUGH TO SUPPORT ITS OWN STRUCTURE.
THIS LED ME TO NOTICE THAT THESE WERE NOT NEW PROBLEMS; THEY WERE CHALLENGES THAT HISTORICAL PAINTERS’ AND ARTISANS’ WORKSHOPS ALSO FACED WHEN PRODUCING THEIR OWN MATERIALS. THEY WORKED THROUGH SIMILAR ISSUES CENTURIES BEFORE US, WITH FAR LESS TECHNOLOGY BUT A MUCH DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF THE BEHAVIOR OF MATTER AND A CLOSER STUDY OF NATURE.
AS A FAN OF ANCIENT RECIPES FOR VARNISHES, PAINTS, AND GLUES, I RETURNED TO THOSE SOURCES. I SOUGHT TO UNDERSTAND THE SOLUTIONS THEY HAD FOUND FOR PROBLEMS LIKE WATER RESISTANCE, HARDNESS, DURABILITY, AND SHRINKAGE. THIS APPROACH EXCITES ME BECAUSE IT BRIDGES THE PAST AND THE FUTURE, BLENDING ANCIENT WISDOM WITH CONTEMPORARY EXPERIMENTATION TO CREATE MATERIALS THAT ARE BOTH FUNCTIONAL AND SUSTAINABLE.
I ALSO BELIEVE THAT BIOPLASTIC HOLDS INCREDIBLE POTENTIAL TO REPLACE CURRENT PLASTICS. I AM ENERGIZED BY THE HISTORICAL MOMENT WE ARE LIVING IN, WHERE SO MANY OF US ARE RESEARCHING AND EXPERIMENTING WITH THIS MATERIAL TO HELP IT EVOLVE. ITS ECOLOGICAL POTENTIAL IS UNDENIABLE, BUT WHAT EXCITES ME EVEN MORE IS ITS PHILOSOPHICAL POTENTIAL. RETURNING TO MATERIALS LIKE THIS COULD INSPIRE A PROFOUND CONCEPTUAL SHIFT IN HOW WE UNDERSTAND NATURE, PHYSICALITY, AND OUR SURROUNDINGS. IT REPRESENTS A CHANCE TO RETHINK OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE ENVIRONMENT AND TO APPROACH CREATION IN A MORE HARMONIOUS AND INTERCONNECTED WAY.
“LETTING GO OF BEING AT THE CENTER OF CREATION”
SOME OF YOUR SCULPTURES EVOLVE AUTONOMOUSLY THROUGH MICROBIOMES. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT RELINQUISHING CONTROL OVER YOUR ARTWORK’S FINAL FORM?
WORKING IN BIO-ART INHERENTLY REQUIRES LETTING GO OF BEING AT THE CENTER OF CREATION. IT’S A PRACTICE OF COLLABORATION WITH NON-HUMAN ENTITIES THAT HAVE THEIR OWN FORCES AND BEHAVIORS. I LIKE TO THINK OF IT AS A DIALOGUE RATHER THAN A NARRATION. IT’S NOT ABOUT ME TELLING A STORY OR USING MATERIALS TO IMPOSE MY VISION. INSTEAD, I ENGAGE AS AN ARTIST IN CONVERSATION WITH PROCESSES THAT EXCEED MY CONTROL—PROCESSES I ACCEPT AND LEARN FROM TO AMPLIFY MY CREATIVITY IN EACH PROJECT.
RELINQUISHING CONTROL IS NOT ABOUT LOSS BUT ABOUT OPENNESS. IT ALLOWS ME TO EMBRACE THE UNPREDICTABILITY OF NATURAL SYSTEMS AND SEE HOW THEY CAN INFORM AND TRANSFORM MY WORK IN WAYS I COULD NEVER ANTICIPATE ON MY OWN.
YOUR WORK OFTEN INVOLVES EXPERIMENTAL MATERIALS LIKE ALGAE AND COLLAGEN. HOW DO YOU CHOOSE MATERIALS, AND WHAT ROLE DOES THEIR MATERIALITY PLAY IN THE NARRATIVE OF YOUR WORK?
I ALWAYS CHOOSE MATERIALS BASED ON THE TECHNICAL NEEDS OF MY FORMULA. DO I NEED COHESION? PLASTICITY? TO PRESERVE COLOR? THEN I LOOK FOR NATURAL ELEMENTS THAT CAN PROVIDE THOSE QUALITIES AND BEGIN RESEARCHING THE PHYSICOCHEMICAL REACTIONS OF THEIR COMBINATION. HOW WILL THEY WORK TOGETHER? WHAT NEW CHARACTERISTICS WILL THEY ACQUIRE WHEN COMBINED? THAT’S HOW I TEST AND SELECT MATERIALS.
I ALSO ENJOY THINKING ABOUT MATERIALS IN TERMS OF THEIR INTRINSIC QUALITIES, ALLOWING FOR UNEXPECTED APPLICATIONS, AND I OFTEN MAKE CONCEPTUAL NODS THROUGH THEIR USE. FOR EXAMPLE, I INCORPORATE AGAR AS PART OF A BIOPLASTIC FORMULA BUT ALSO AS A MEDIUM FOR CULTIVATING MICROORGANISMS OR MUSHROOMS. IT’S A WAY OF USING A LABORATORY PROCEDURE, SUCH AS THOSE DEVELOPED WITH PETRI DISHES, WHILE ALTERING THE DEGREE OF CONTROL OVER ALL THE VARIABLES INVOLVED.
BIO-ART BRIDGES THE GAP BETWEEN ART AND SCIENCE. HOW DO YOU NAVIGATE THE SCIENTIFIC RIGOR REQUIRED FOR SUCH PROJECTS WHILE MAINTAINING YOUR ARTISTIC VISION?
WELL, IT ALWAYS DEPENDS ON WHERE YOU WANT TO FOCUS. DURING MY RESIDENCY AT THE UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO, SALOMON, THE LAB MANAGER, WOULD OFTEN SMILE AT MY HYPOTHESES. IN THAT PARTICULAR PROJECT, I WAS USING THE DNA EXTRACTION PROCESS TO PRESERVE THE PHYSICAL APPEARANCE OF EACH STEP IN THE PROTOCOL. FOR SCIENTISTS, THIS MAKES NO SENSE, AS EACH STEP IS MERELY A NECESSARY LINK LEADING TO THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF EXTRACTING A DNA SAMPLE FROM A TREE LEAF. FOR ME, THE IMPORTANT THING WASN’T THE END RESULT, BUT RATHER HIGHLIGHTING THE WAY WE TRANSMUTE AND TRANSLATE MATTER THROUGH SCIENTIFIC METHODS. THE RIGOR OF THE PROCEDURE REMAINED THE SAME, BUT MY FOCUS WAS ENTIRELY DIFFERENT.
I BELIEVE THIS IS WHAT WE, AS ARTISTS, DO: WE LOOK AT THINGS THROUGH A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT LENS, ALLOWING US TO ANALYZE AND INTERPRET THEM IN NEW WAYS.
YOU VIEW TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY AS EXTENSIONS OF HUMAN PERCEPTION. CAN YOU ELABORATE ON HOW THIS PHILOSOPHY SHAPES YOUR ARTISTIC PRACTICE?
ONE OF THE MOST FASCINATING THINGS ABOUT BEING HUMAN, I BELIEVE, IS THE ABILITY TO BE AWARE OF OUR OWN LIMITATIONS. WE EXPERIENCE THE WORLD THROUGH A BODY, A BODY WITH LIMITED CAPABILITIES, ASSOCIATED WITH A MIND WITH PROCESSING TIMES AND ASSOCIATIVE CAPACITIES THAT HUMANITY HAS BEEN STRIVING TO PUSH FORWARD SINCE ITS BEGINNING. WE SEE THE MICROSCOPIC THROUGH THE LENS OF A MICROSCOPE, BECOME MORE PRECISE THROUGH THE USE OF MACHINES, AND TRANSCEND OUR COGNITIVE CAPACITIES WITH TOOLS LIKE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, WHICH SURPASSES OUR IQ BUT EXISTS ONLY BECAUSE OF OUR CAPACITY FOR INVENTION.
IT IS ABSOLUTELY SHOCKING THAT WE ARE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES THAT CAN EXCLUDE OR REPLACE US IN THE VERY PROCESSES WE CREATED THEM TO IMPROVE. MY OBSESSION WITH PHYSICALITY AND THE TACTILE PROCESS OF CREATING MATERIALS IS INTRINSICALLY LINKED TO THIS. I FEEL WE HAVE EXPLORED OUR LIMITS SO EXTENSIVELY THAT WE ARE ON THE VERGE OF FALLING OUT OF OUR OWN HUMANITY. FOR ME, MAINTAINING CONTACT WITH THE MATERIAL WORLD IS A POWERFUL TOOL OF HUMAN RESISTANCE.
CAN YOU SHARE ANY UPCOMING PROJECTS OR THEMES YOU’RE CURRENTLY EXPLORING THAT CONTINUE YOUR EXPLORATION OF MATERIALITY AND TRANSFORMATION?
I AM ABOUT TO LAUNCH THE BRAND FOR MY BIOPLASTIC AND BIOFOAM FORMULA. AT THIS STAGE, I’M DEEPLY EXPLORING NATURAL PIGMENTS AND WORKING ON A CO-CREATION PROJECT WITH FUNGI THAT PRODUCE COLOR.
I’M INCREDIBLY EXCITED ABOUT THIS PROJECT! ADDITIONALLY, I’M WORKING ON A LIMITED-EDITION CAPSULE THAT INCORPORATES YERBA AS BOTH A DYE AND A THICKENING AGENT.
SABRINA, THANK YOU FOR ALL THE INSIGHTS. THROUGH YOUR GROUNDBREAKING WORK, YOU CHALLENGES US TO REIMAGINE OUR PLACE IN AN EVER-EVOLVING WORLD.
