Finale of major public artwork
- Animated drawings of six Lewisham activists and residents will be shown, including tireless campaigner Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, mother of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, who died in 2013 from an asthma attack in Lewisham.
- Alongside Breathe:2022, Drawing Breath an animation co-created by over 130 Lewisham Secondary School pupils in partnership with the artist will be shown.
IMAGERY CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE
The unveiling of the finale of Dryden Goodwin’s Breathe:2022, produced by Invisible Dust, will take place at Lewisham Old Town Hall, Catford at 6pm on Wednesday 30 November as part of We Are Lewisham, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan’s London Borough of Culture 2022.
This is the culmination of a year-long programme exploring the impact of air pollution. Reimagining and extending his 2012 ‘Breathe’ artwork (which featured 1,300 drawings of his five-year-old son inhaling and exhaling air) a decade on, Goodwin has created a multi-site commission combining drawings of six Lewisham residents. Participants from local activist groups including Choked Up, Mums for Lungs, Clean Air for Catford, and the Ella Roberta Family Foundation, as well as Goodwin’s now 15 year old son and a younger school child, have been drawn by the Lewisham based artist as they ‘fight for breath’
Sequences of Goodwin’s delicate small-scale studies have been monumentally scaled-up, appearing as still and moving images on bridges, buildings and digital hoardings close to busy roads across Lewisham, Greater London and parts of the UK since May 2022. Seen by more than 13 million people to date, the work brings home the serious health impacts of air pollution - often disproportionately affecting the most disadvantaged communities.
Now, for the first time the 1,300 drawings of the six residents and activists will be animated in a public projection on the heavily polluted South Circular Road, projected onto the side of Lewisham’s Old Town Hall in Catford. The finale of Breathe:2022 lights up the night sky for 2 weeks from 30th November – 14th December.
One featured activist is the tireless campaigner Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, mother of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, who died in 2013 from an asthma attack in Lewisham. In a 2020, landmark coroner’s judgement found “exposure to excessive air pollution” had contributed to Ella’s death.
Premiering alongside Breathe:2022 will be Drawing Breath, an ambitious new animation co-created by over 130 Lewisham Secondary School pupils in partnership with the artist. This new project is a collective animation featuring a further 800 original drawings made by the pupils this autumn, across five participating schools.
Breathe:2022 is informed and supported by lead scientific consultant, Dr Ian Mudway of the MRC Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, who brings over 25 years of world-leading research in environmental toxicology to the project.
Shirley Rodrigues, London Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy said: “
“The Mayor is doing everything in his power to reduce London’s toxic air which is a danger to everyone’s health, causing stunted lungs and asthma in the young and dementia in the elderly. Because of the Mayor’s decisive action, four million Londoners living within the expanded Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) are now breathing cleaner air. This project will not only raise awareness of the dangers of air pollution, it will highlight the need for urgent action to ensure Londoners can breathe cleaner air as we build a better London for everyone.”
On Breathe:2022 Lucy Wood from Invisible Dust said:
“Projected high above London’s choked streets, Breathe:2022 will act as a 'bat signal' for urgent action on air pollution. Working with scientist Dr Ian Mudway and the amazing campaigners has ensured Dryden’s project is not only filled with hope but grounded in the grave realities of air pollution’s impact on our health and communities.”
On Breathe:2022 Dryden Goodwin said:
“I experience drawing as an act of empathy, thinking yourself into another person’s life, their emotions and story as you draw them. As it’s clear we don’t all breathe the same air, the role of empathy will play a vital role if we are going to achieve the change needed locally and globally. Through making hundreds of drawings of these 6 individuals - the activists, my son and a younger local child - animation seems to become a metaphor for essential collective action.”
On Drawing Breath Dryden Goodwin said:
“It’s been a fantastic experience working with the schools. Seeing the diversity of the student’s drawings - to have hundreds of school pupils each make their contributions, ‘Drawing Breath’ extends the idea of animation as a metaphor for essential collective action - how together we can be more than the sum of our parts.”
Damien Egan, Mayor of Lewisham, said:
“The Breathe:2022 projections will be quite the spectacle across the borough, in a fitting end to the year-long programme of climate activity as part of our year as London Borough of Culture 2022. We are proud to be working with many local creative and climate organisations, as well as local schools and young people in a shared commitment to take action on the climate emergency.”
-Ends-
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Notes to Editors:
About invisible Dust:
Invisible Dust works with leading artists and scientists to produce unique and exciting works of contemporary art and new scientific ideas exploring our environment and climate change. We engage audiences with artist commissions, large scale events, education and community activities and seek to raise awareness of, and behaviour change around, increasingly urgent environmental concerns. Invisible Dust is based at Woodend, Scarborough and works across the UK and Internationally www.invisibledust.com
About the artist:
Dryden Goodwin is an artist and filmmaker, engaging with different uses of drawing, the camera lens and soundtracks, he has made works for galleries, museums, public space, cinemas and online. His practice involves close observation and engagement with people, be they strangers encountered in the city, family and friends or specific groups with a shared experience of work or environment. His work explores the boundaries between anonymity and intimacy, public and private, individual emotional worlds and group dynamics. Goodwin's work has been shown extensively nationally and internationally, including exhibitions at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, The Photographers' Gallery, London, The National Portrait Gallery, London, the Venice Biennale, OCAT Xi’an, China and the Hasselblad Foundation in Gothenburg, Sweden. His work in collections includes The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Tate Collection, The National Portrait Gallery, London, The Arts Council Collection, UK and The Science Museum, London. He is a Professor at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL.
The Mayor’s London Borough of Culture award:
London Borough of Culture is a Mayor of London initiative, launched in June 2017. The award puts culture at the heart of local communities, where it belongs. It shines a light on the character and diversity of London’s boroughs and brings culture to everyone, so that all Londoners have the chance to be part of something extraordinary.
We Are Lewisham, London Borough of Culture 2022:
Lewisham is the Mayor’s London Borough of Culture 2022. The year-long cultural programme, We Are Lewisham, is a celebration of our history, people and place, with hundreds of events happening across venues, parks and street corners. Led by Lewisham Council and The Albany and created by and with the people of the borough, the programme is inspired by Lewisham’s history of activism and standing up for equality. It celebrates the borough’s diversity and trailblazers past and present, highlighting the power of culture to create change.
Lewisham Council:
Lewisham is a vibrant and culturally diverse borough. This is reflected in all aspects of daily life, from the response to the pandemic where the community rallied to support our most vulnerable residents, to the 170 languages spoken in our homes, schools and businesses. We have a rich history of welcoming people from all over the world and are proud to be recognised as the UK’s first Borough of Sanctuary, for our work in championing the rights of refugees and migrants.
We are committed to tackling inequalities so that everybody has the opportunity to succeed. The pandemic has shone a light on the disparities experienced by those from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds in all areas of their lives. In November, Lewisham became the first local authority to commission a headcount study of high streets to better support our BAME independent retailers through Covid 19 recovery and to champion the diversity of town centres.
As we plan ahead, we are working towards a fairer, greener, healthier and more economically sound future for all in Lewisham. This means continuing our efforts to tackle climate change for generations to come; ensuring that good health and wellbeing is equally accessible to everyone; and safeguarding local jobs and upskilling residents with tools they need to succeed. Building on the community spirit and activism that has helped us through the pandemic, we are committed to creating a Future Lewisham we can all have a part in.
The Albany:
Based in the heart of Deptford, the Albany is a performing arts centre that exists to inspire, develop and support creativity in South East London. With year-round activities and events including award-winning programmes for young creatives and adults over 60, music, theatre, spoken word and family performance, the Albany is led by the talent and imagination of its local community.
With four performance spaces and a range of rehearsal space, meeting rooms and offices for community and creative businesses, the Albany is underpinned by a commitment to collaboration and artistic excellence. In a normal year 80,000 people attend performances or take part in projects at the Albany, and a further 100,000 attend events.
The Albany has 26 resident organisations based in the building, and manages and programmes Deptford Lounge and Canada Water Theatre on behalf of Lewisham and Southwark Councils. It is co-lead of the national Future Arts Centres network and lead partner of the Family Arts Campaign. In September 2020, The Albany was appointed Lead Delivery Partner for the Mayor’s London Borough of Culture 2022 in Lewisham. They are taking lead responsibility for key strands of the programme and working closely with the team at Lewisham Council on the overall direction of the year.
Breathe:2022 - Further Background:
Breathe:2022 by Dryden Goodwin is commissioned by the Albany and produced by Invisible Dust and presented as part of We Are Lewisham. We Are Lewisham is presented by Lewisham Council and the Albany as part of the Mayor’s London Borough of Culture 2022.
2022 is the tenth anniversary of Dryden Goodwin’s Breathe produced by art science organisation Invisible Dust with London air quality scientists. For his 2012 work Goodwin created an animation of over 1,300 drawings of his five-year-old son inhaling and exhaling air. Over two weeks in October 2012 Goodwin’s film was projected large-scale on the roof of St Thomas’ Hospital, London, opposite the Houses of Parliament.
Ten years on, the issue of air pollution is increasingly urgent. Lewisham is often at the centre of the national conversation, led in part by the urgent work of the Ella Roberta Family Foundation following the tragic death of Ella Kissi-Debrah after an asthma attack in 2013. In a 2020 landmark judgement, a coroner found “exposure to excessive air pollution” had contributed to her death, adding that “the whole of Ella’s life was lived in close proximity to highly polluting roads”. Lewisham Council has the policy to treat air pollution as a public health emergency; it is blighted with illegal levels of air quality, particularly around the South Circular Road, which has serious health impacts, often on the poorest communities.
The Breathe:2022 participants are from local campaigning groups Choked Up, Mums for Lungs, Clean Air for Catford, Friends of the Earth and Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah - mother of Ella and the founder of the Ella Roberta Family Foundation, as well as Goodwin’s now 15 year old son and a younger school child, have been drawn by the Lewisham based artist as they ‘fight to breathe’.
Breathe:2022 also featured at the Wellcome Collection who hosted 90 0f the original drawings by Goodwin, and a sound piece created from the participants’ words, as part of the ‘In the Air’ exhibition. In September, the project hosted ‘We Breathe, Together’ at the Horniman Museum - a community day of engagement around the project, during which over 500 young people and their families took part in a wide range of workshops, installations and talks exploring ways to take action for a clean air future.
More about Drawing Breath:
Dryden Goodwin and Invisible Dust worked with 130+ pupils from five Lewisham secondary schools (Addey + Stanhope, St. Matthew Academy, Hatcham College, Deptford Green and Forest Hill School) in the creation of an ambitious animation raising awareness on air pollution and celebrating the power of collective action. Art teachers from participating schools attended a special twilight session led by Goodwin, Invisible Dust and science lead Dr Ian Mudway of Imperial College.
Following resources and guidance from the artist and their teachers, each of the 130+ participating pupils have created a set of frames collated by Goodwin into a final animation to be projected large-scale on the side of the Old Town Hall in Catford, on the 30th November, as part of a major finale event for the Breathe:2022 programme and alongside Goodwin’s major final animated work.
https://invisibledust.com/projects/drawing-breath-schools-commission/