BIOLAB | A hands-on biomaterial workshop

BIOLAB | Presented by Spiraro x IN | ARI

Part of the series Studio Tactics for the End of Capital

BioLab invites you to engage your senses and work in dialogue with nature’s materials. Through a process of material exploration, we’ll experiment with algae and other natural ingredients to create bio-plastics and bio-yarn. You’ll discover new ways of working with texture and form in sustainable design. This sensory-driven process encourages creativity, connection, and curiosity and roots us in the experience of working directly with alive materials.

This workshop offers a playful and tactile introduction to conscious design practices. Participants will take home their own bio-yarn and bio-plastic, along with a recipe card and plenty of information on how to continue their biomaterial journey.

Indy Heath (aka Spiraro) is a Naarm/Melbourne-based artist working across textiles, sculpture, biomaterials, and lighting. Their work explores the material life of textiles, both living and lived, through a heightened sensory experience. Heath’s approach to making is rooted in sensory engagement, creating works that invite touch, sight, smell, and sound as ways to connect. They work with natural pigments derived from rust and plant matter, biomaterials such as seaweed and bacterial leather, metal, found objects, and discarded textiles, interweaving these elements into sculptural pieces that question how future materials might coexist with those of the past. Blurring the line between organic and human-made, their work sits in the tension between what is grown and what is discarded.

With a heightened sensorial experience of the world, Heath’s practice also extends beyond the studio into curation and facilitation, bringing others into dialogue with biomaterials and sustainable materials through group exhibitions and hands-on workshops. They founded Bio(me), an exhibition series showcasing artists working with waste and biomaterials, and created Biolab, an experimental workshop program focused on exploring the future of materials through biomaterial experimentation.

The alias ‘Spiraro’ draws its roots from the Latin verb ‘spirare’, which translates to ‘breathe out.’ This action translates into their work through materials and process, inviting the audience to slow down and reconnect with their environment.

This initiative was supported through the Creative Industries Investment Program and is jointly funded by Sunshine Coast Council’s Arts and Heritage Levy and the Regional Arts Development Fund in partnership with the Queensland Government.