Jenna Sutela (1983, Turku, Finland) works with biological and computational systems, including the microbiome and artificial neural networks, to create sculptures, videos and music. Drawing on scientific research and its philosophical implications, Sutela's work is often processual by nature. In her projects, wetware (organic matter viewed through the lens of computing), hardware and software are used to explore the world beyond our perception.
HMO nutrix (2022) is a fountain of synthetic human milk, powered by deconstructed breast pumps and animated with biomimetic song. The artist describes the sculpture as a ‘live milk feed’. The work meditates on feedback mechanisms between different life forms bonding through bodily fluids. The fluid in the sculpture contains human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), potent sugars that feed babies’ gut bacteria and appear to shape the development of the nervous system. In the near future, their neuroactive effects may be used therapeutically, and once milk can be grown in a lab, anyone could access the breast-gut-brain axis.
Across much of her work, Sutela considers how our symbiotic microbes expand the limits of consciousness, depicting the body as an interdependent environment through which other organisms and nutrients can move. In doing so, she suggests a commonality among and between bodies and species.
Co-produced with Schering Stiftung Berlin.
Curated by Sarah Johanna Theurer.
HMO Nutrix, 2022 inaugurates the symposium for the exhibition “Fujiko Nakaya. Nebel Leben”. It is further embedded in the event Technobodies – a long weekend of public programs conceived in collaboration with Lenbachhaus and Museum Brandhorst. Technobodies focuses on the impact of new technologies on the visual and sonic arts. Starting from discourses rooted in the 1960s to 1970s, it explores the relationship of human bodies to technologies today.
During the symposium, Jenna Sutela will present a video expanding upon the research that led her to create HMO Nutrix. The image material features poetic depictions of a simulation of the human intestinal microbial ecosystem, which was captured at the University of Copenhagen. The video is a collaboration between Sutela and Diakron/Primer (Copenhagen).
Co-produced with
