Collective Breath

This exhibition explores the synergy and transference of breath between body, material and architecture. Through these exchanges of energy and the embodiment of alchemy—the processes of changing atmosphere and elements into something else pure—is regarded by the artists as a Collective Breath and the exhibition itself as a living vehicle for this exchange.

Utilising the conductivity of copper, artists Nikhil James Arlo and Phoebe Kelly have etched flame-like and gestural markings to charge the metal with the memory of touch. The copper sheets have been embraced by the artists family and loved one’s bodies. Each person was instructed to take a single breath, leaving a physical or somatic relief. This breath becomes solidified when the copper plates are treated in baths of chemicals and acids, following traditional etching processes. Rather than being printed on paper the copper itself becomes a sculptural form. Suspended in the Atrium, the copper objects appear as the lungs of the room, with connected copper tubing forming tracheas that extend from the architecture.

The genesis of this exhibition also draws inspiration from the previous uses of the architecture of the gallery. Functioning as the Essendon Incinerator from 1929-42, the rear building was designed to burn waste. The resultant heat of the burning reverberators was harnessed in the front building to power steam kettles that sterilised hospital equipment and bed linen. Bitumen boilers ran all day long, thereby transforming waste into energy.

In medieval alchemy, the notion of transmutation was the magical change of one state of energy or matter into another form. Such as from lead into gold or—as this artwork suggests—from breath to copper.

Dancer Chloe Arnott will activate the space with gestures of holistic resonance. Cycles of generation in the body will transpire, as movement and breath hum in a visceral exchange to one another and in response to the plexus of copper plates.

The dancer and artists envisage this recording of bodies as an alchemical transference of energy, shared with the audience as a collective and continuous breath.

Participants:

Patrick, David, Alex, Jacinta, Peter, Chloe, Nikhil, Phoebe, Ingrid, Tabitha, Ollie, Janni, Tay, Liv, and Jess.