JUST BREATHE
A collective breath installation to invite a new experience of breath.
In our stress-riddled times, the pithy meme of the century, ‘just breathe’, is often touted as a cure-all for modern life.
Embedded within this is a narrative that the simple act of taking a deep breath will take away all the pain: that breathing deep will reinstate one’s power of this moment, and therefore one’s life.
This ‘power-over thinking’ is created by and supportive of dominant cultural narratives of hyper-individualised humans being able to conquer nature, inside and out, for their own benefit.
But breath is a collective, inter-connected, multi-faceted mystery of life. It is not an in-and-out thing.
Just Breathe is a multi-voice sound installation that explores the nuance of breath as a collective symphony of life - the styles, sounds, cadence and rhythms, far beyond the mechanics of respiration.
During covid, over 500 people breathed online with The Breathery. We practiced different breath patterns and as our breathing expanded, so did our minds.
I invited people from this group to record their breath as if its wisdom could and would touch another person's body and without words somehow express the bigger meaning of breath.
With these sounds, we co-created a breath-threads sound piece: you are invited to Just Breathe …
The Just Breathe piece was aired in real life on Monday 19th April and below are some of the images and reflections on the piece. To create your own Just Breathe experience, I invite you to:
Gather a blanket, a cushion, some paper and ideally some ink and a straw
Go to a beautiful spot in nature, I love lying underneath trees, but you follow your own impulse
The piece has been designed to spiral through space and create a moving, immersive experience, but the recordings below are only 2 channel, so I would suggest great headphones if you have them.
When you are ready, lie down, knees bent, feet on the earth, and press play.
There are two versions to listen to. I suggest the one without the narrative first and if you have time, the second.
Inspired by the Zen method of contemplating sound, I invite you to follow and track how and where the sound moves in your body. I also invite you to listen into, under, and around the sounds.
For your own experience to feel safe and nourishing, please know that whilst there are some soundings and tones that breathers have vulnerably recorded and shared for us, some of those sounds may create some arising tension or discomfort in you. Of course, don’t push through any experience, but if you have the capacity to be with the sound and your experience - to allow it all to be there and to follow the piece, please do. You can tap your bones in your chest or thighs, or lay your hands on your body to welcome the sensations. The main thing here, is that you only stay with what you feel ok with.
Once you have listened to the piece (with and without the narrative) allow at least 3 minutes of silence. Again, really listen to the silence - see how it moves.
Then, only when you feel ready, I would love you to write any reflections on the piece AND if you can, get a piece of paper, drop some ink onto the paper and record your breath visually by blowing the ink. If you feel comfortable sharing your ink-breath and reflections with me to co-create the ever- emergent element of this piece - please email to: jo@thebreathery.co
Please share this work with others, and credit the artist and collaborators at all times.
This work is a collaboration between Joanna Cruickshanks, The Breathery Communitas, Niko Batistini, Theo Luddick and Wilf Amis. Photographs are by Alice Parmenter, with many thanks.
MOMENTS CAPTURED FROM THE REAL-LIFE EVENT …
