Sara Bowen

Breathe

99% of the air we breathe is nitrogen and oxygen; the rest contains atoms that once were dinosaurs, volcanoes, pollutants, ancient perfumes, our ancestors’ last breath…  That 1% also contains a vibrant mix of plastic particles, mould spores, water, pollen, rare gases, crystalline dust, bacteria, viruses, phages – the signature of where and who we are.

Breathe

We are connected to our history and each other in every breath.  We are all air breathers.  Air is our personal story, our shared past, and our deep connection with each other.

Breathe

We breathe… lungs pulling gases and vapours through slippery membranes and filling our blood with oxygen.  I breathe, you breathe, we breathe the same air. 
The 1% of the air that isn’t life-giving gases contains a vivid, potent mixture of plastic particles, mould spores, water, pollen, crystalline dust, bacteria, viruses, yeasts that mix with the microbiomes in our lungs and write out a signature of where and who we are to drift in the air.  We breathe…

AIRBORNE examines the infiltration of the pristine gallery space at YAM, examining the life – from the microscopic organisms to the insects, growths and leaves that drift into and out of the space.

Sara Bowen’s body of work for AIRBORNE builds on her research into the science of air quality, including placing settle plates around the YAM galleries to collect samples of the air we breathe.  Concerns about micro- and nano- plastics, about recycling (of the gases we breathe as well as the materials we use!), about the use of new materials, about the overlooked contributions of women to scientific research and about our place in the world as humans are refracted through the lens of her multidisciplinary practice.  For this exhibition, reused plastics and recycled textiles are cut, engraved, pulped and repurposed in a deliberate attempt to make the invisible – the air that connects us all – visible.