Breathe, the public artwork by Dryden Goodwin has since 2012 utilised highly visible artistic interventions to explore pressing policy issues around the global health emergency of air pollution.
Dryden Goodwin and producer Lucy Wood from commissioning organisation Invisible Dust will present on the project, joined for a panel conversation by air pollution research fellow Dr Neil Rowland, QUB.
Following the talk the conversation will open up to interested community members to share their perspectives as we develop plans for touring the artwork internationally.
This event will be a chance to explore the power of public art to spark community feeling and campaigning around clean air, change perceptions of our shared urban space – and engender a greater stewardship of our shared urban spaces. It will provide a space to hear about the vital work taking place across Belfast and N. Ireland – and what we can learn from each other as we push towards cleaner, more just cities.
Dryden Goodwin is an artist exploring expanded notions of portraiture considering individual and group identities and narratives, the infrastructure of the city and its effect on human dynamics. Working with drawing, still and moving images, sound and installation, in galleries and public spaces, he centres on people’s personal, social and working lives. Contexts include transport networks, hospitals, airports and prisons – seeking to capture people’s physical appearances as well as revealing desires, philosophies, experiences, vulnerabilities and motivations.
Art-Science organisation Invisible Dust is the lead producer and commissioner of Breathe. We work across the UK and internationally, bringing together leading artists and scientists to create high quality and impactful contemporary works of art relating to new scientific ideas on the pressing environmental issues of our times. Through art that is rooted in science we connect with policy makers, academics and activists, and communicate with millions of people helping them engage emotionally with complex subjects that require deep thinking, such as climate change. We successfully co-design each project with artists, partners, and scientists leaving a legacy of learning. We are a registered charity, founded in 2009.
Dr Neil Rowland is a Senior Research Fellow at the Administrative Data Research Centre for Northern Ireland and is based at Queen’s Business School, Queen’s University Belfast. He is also the UKRI Regional Clean Air Champion for Northern Ireland. Working as part of a multidisciplinary research team, Neil uses various administrative datasets linked to neighbourhood air pollution data to better understand the health and mortality effects of outdoor air pollution in Northern Ireland
