The Incubator is a sensor-activated sculptural object built around a capsule containing a two-way surveillance mirror. When inactive, the mirrored surface reflects the viewer and conceals the interior. As a person approaches, a motion sensor activates the system, triggering an internal light source. This illumination generates heat, causing the mirror to become transparent and revealing a living microbiome growing inside the capsule.
Within this enclosed environment, a mushroom develops under shifting conditions produced by the system itself. The heat emitted by the light creates condensation, forming a microclimate that directly influences the organism’s growth and continuously modifies its life cycle. The viewer’s presence becomes an active agent, not only unveiling the interior but shaping the conditions of life within it.
The work stages an encounter between human presence, technological mediation, and living matter. The internal circuitry remains visible, positioning electronic components alongside organic life.
Constructed from Orifex, the artist’s algae-based bioplastic, the piece establishes a cyclical relationship between structure, material origin, and sustenance itself. Through this interaction, the work explores how living organisms, biomaterials, and responsive technologies can coexist within a single sculptural system.
A project by
Sabrina Merayo Nuñez
Sabrina Merayo Nuñez is an Argentine multidisciplinary artist and material researcher based in New York. Her practice focuses on biomaterial innovation and interactive systems, developing Orifex, a proprietary bioplastic made from algae, plants, and natural oils. Working across sculpture and design, she integrates living organisms and sensor-based technologies, approaching materials as active agents capable of transformation.
Her work has been exhibited internationally at Collectible Brussels, Milan Design Week, 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen, and the Diriyah Biennale. In 2025, she participated in the New York Latin American Art Triennial, and her work was featured in Shifting Mirrors, Maison & Objet Hong Kong. She is a recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant.
She has participated in residencies including the School of Visual Arts Bio Art Residency (New York) and the Coalesce Center for Biological Art (University at Buffalo) and LMCC Arts Center at Governors Island.
Sabrina Merayo Nuñez works at the intersection of bio art, material research, and design, developing biomaterials such as Orifex, a bioplastic composed of algae, plants, and natural oils. Her practice centers on understanding materials as active agents, capable of transformation and of forming relationships with their environment. Through sculptures and installations, she integrates biomaterials, microorganisms, fungi, and sensors to create responsive systems that react to human presence. She is interested in establishing conditions where biological and technological processes coexist, allowing the work to evolve over time. Inspired by historical craft workshops, she develops her own materials as a fundamental part of her process. Her work proposes a shift from representation toward materiality, where sustainability is not only a concept but a structural property. Each piece becomes a site of negotiation between control and contingency, inviting a reconsideration of our relationship with the living and the artificial.