Output details

Breathe

I created an animation of over 1,300 intense pencil drawings, featuring a young child breathing, projected for three weeks on a specially designed 8 metre high screen on St Thomas’ Hospital, next to Westminster Bridge, opposite the Houses of Parliament. Working with an environmental scientist, Professor Frank Kelly, Kings College London, engaging with his research around air pollution and damage to respiration systems; the emphasis of the work was to find ways to communicate that air can both sustain us but also corrupt and damage. The work was activated by a tension between the animated and the still image and its association with the sustaining and the cessation of life. The particular location of the work was aimed to both engage the public and policy-makers in government, while emphasising the fragility of the young child, set against the vastness of the cityscape.

One of three projects for Invisible Breath, curated by Invisible Dust whose mission is to encourage awareness of, and meaningful responses to, environmental issues, facilitating dialogue between leading visual artists and world scientists thus creating high impact artwork alongside new scientific theories.

Invisible Breath was awarded one of two Wellcome Trust’s ‘Large Arts awards’ given in July 2010.

In addition to the projection, Breathe was also available as a smart phone app.

Breathe: Turner Updated was a seminar hosted by the Environmental Audit Committee and the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, Houses of Parliament chaired by MP Joan Walley, attended by over 80 people, including MPs, campaigners and representatives from numerous environmental groups (2012). There was also a public talk at St Thomas’ Hospital (2012).

Press included Timeout, Guardian.co.uk, Design Week, Artlyst, All in London, London-SE1, Arts London News, Zoom-Info, Londonist, Kings College website, UCL website, Wellcome website and London Calling.