WHEN NATURE BECOMES ART

All Photography by Marta de Menezes

Welcome to the ARTIST SERIES where I share love notes and insights about the people who inspire me and shape my thinking. This is my dream thing to research, and I usually keep it to the confines of my notebook, but I feel really drawn to share more online.

While looking through an old journal, I found some photos of this work Nature by Marta de Menezes. When I was living in Hong Kong for university exchange, I attended one of her talks on the intersection of biology and art practice. This was my first insight into the world of bioart, before this, I associated biology with school science lessons that never quite clicked for me. Marta’s work got me excited, leading to my interest in synthetic biology, biodesign, and later evolving into the design of Mycelia House.

Marta’s practice unfolds in a research lab, which she uses as her art studio, exploring the fusion of biology and creativity. In Nature, she alters the cocoon conditions of butterflies, influencing the patterns that form on their wings. It’s a natural process, yet shaped by human intervention—since the patterns are influenced from environmental factors, not genetics. No genes are altered, and each butterfly emerges with a pattern that will never appear again. The artwork is alive, and then dies, which is perhaps what I love most about it.

We are in constant co-creation with nature—sometimes it’s intentional, but mostly it’s just part of life.

You can learn more about this work here.