Propelling visual art towards a more sensory experience, New York-based conceptual artist Hayden Dunham, and fellow artist Nicolas Lobo aim to evoke questions surrounding bodily form, our needs as a species and human economies – all through the use of large-scale, poly-sensual sculptures and 3D work.

Co-existing among the gallery walls of their latest exhibition BIO: DIP, the two artists describe the show, and their work within it, as a parallel as opposed to a pair. Working to similar goals, Dunham hopes to further her exploration and criticism of our relationships with organic materials and how they directly influence the human body.

“I don't think it's possible to have linear intentions when it comes to what informs an individual’s experience, but I am interested in the multiplicities of exchanges between material systems and bodies”, Dunham says of her work. Similarly, Lobo says of what he wants people to take away from the exhibition, “We wanted everything we did to reflect as some kind of body care or conditioning system. Someone coming to the space should think about what it means to make and see an exhibition in a place like Red Bull Studios New York. Colour was also very important for Hayden and me — the idea of using colour in a substance based way is something we both agreed was important.”      

With Lobo’s work created from non-conventional art materials such lipstick and soap to reiterate self-care and conditioning as a central theme of the show, Dunham travelled across locations in Iceland, Texas, and China to search for clarity on our increasingly disconnected, problematic relationship with our surroundings.

“Water filtration companies work to keep up with the new chemicals developed by pharmaceutical companies. We as a collective group can actually empower or disempower these structures through decisions we make every day. We are the water. The water becomes us. If it has fluoride in it, we have fluoride in us. We are not separate from these materials”, she says.

BIO: DIP runs until April, 17 2016 at Red Bull Studios NY. More info here