Breathing is something that we humans sometimes take for granted. Breathing is what sustains us, but how often do we really appreciate our breath as a tool for life, rather than a means for life? The likes of Wim Hof and other health influencers constantly highlight the importance of breathwork and how much our breath can aid our overall health, in particular to manage our stress levels.
“The exhibition engages with questions such as why we breathe, how we breathe, and what we breathe”
The Take a Breath exhibition Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) is a unique space where the viewer is encouraged to pause, observe the collection of works, and truly reflect on breath, providing an historical, social, political, and personal examination of breathing. The exhibition engages with questions such as why we breathe, how we breathe, and what we breathe. Themes such as decolonization, environmental racism, indigenous language, the impact of war on the environment, and breath as meditation are explored through the artists’ works. Artists such as JMW Turner and Marina Abramović have pieces featured in the exhibition, demonstrating the breadth of artists who participate in the study of breath.
Abu Hamdan’s Air Conditioning maps the Israeli army’s occupation of Lebanese airspace, using sound as a medium to highlight the subtle yet profound impacts of invisible violence. Through the auditory experience, the work exposes the prolonged warfare that operates in the realm of the inaudible, such as the relentless noise of military jets or surveillance planes, which infiltrate the everyday lives of the Lebanese population. The work’s auditory aspect serves as a haunting reminder of the tension that exists in a landscape where warfare is not only physical but deeply psychological, often unnoticed by the outside world, yet felt deeply by those who endure it.
“Language, once used to subjugate, is reappropriated as a tool to resist that colonial legacy, allowing marginalised communities to reclaim and preserve their histories”
There is a distinct relationship between language and colonialism. Susan Hiller’s The Last Silent Movie is an audio collage of extinct and endangered languages, creating a unique sensory experience that connects the viewer to the many lost cultures. The cultural erasure of local language imposed by colonialism is remembered by Hiller. Language, once used to subjugate, is reappropriated as a tool to resist that colonial legacy, allowing marginalised communities to reclaim and preserve their histories. Hiller, alongside other works that explore breath as language, illuminates how these languages, once suppressed, now offer powerful methods of resistance. Through breath and language, these works preserve and celebrate identity in postcolonial societies, offering a way to reconnect with forgotten stories and voices that have been silenced.
Waqas Khan’s minimalist drawings, composed of dots and dashes, communicate the interconnectedness of particles, constituting a moment of reflection on both the micro and macro levels of existence. The repetition of these simple marks creates a meditative rhythm that allows viewers to engage with the artwork on a deeper, introspective level. Khan’s use of minimalism invites contemplation of the delicate balance between order and chaos, the infinite and the finite, and the ways in which life itself can be understood as a network of connections. This focus on breath as a meditative practice reveals the fundamental unity of all things, evoking a sense of peace and interconnectedness amidst the complexity of existence.
