HMO Nutrix (2022)

Sounding milk fountain

Human milk oligosaccharides and liquids, breast pump parts, acrylic casing.

HMO nutrix is a fountain of synthetic human milk, powered by breast pumps and further animated with biomimetic song. The artist describes the sculpture as a “live milk feed”. The work meditates on feedback mechanisms between human and non-human life forms bonding through body fluids. The fluid in the sculpture includes Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMOs), potent sugars found in breastmilk that feed babies’ gut bacteria and seem to shape the development of their nervous systems.

In considering breastfeeding and how our symbiotic microbial culture expands the limits of consciousness, Sutela depicts human bodies as interconnected, interdependent environments through which other organisms and nutrients can move. In continuation of Fujiko Nakaya’s legacy of ‘collaborating’ with living materials in order to create artworks, the artist suggests a universal commonality among and between species.

Song by Arjopa, sound engineering by Tim Roth. HMOs by Inbiose. Thanks to Vanda Skácalová and werk5. Commissioned and co-produced by Haus der Kunst and Schering Stiftung.