We’ve covered air pollution art and crafts before - we think it’s an excellent way to get people involved in thinking and acting on clean air. The work of the Knitting the Air collective continues to go from strength to strength, with events in East London in the run up to Clean Air Day next week. And we were really excited to get back in touch with Julia Godsiff, the amazing artist who guest blogged for us last year. More on that later.
Art can also bring communities together. Louise was excited to visit the Every Breath We Take exhibition, housed under the Westway. The aim is to inspire change ‘through community engagement, artistic expression, and education.’ Louise definitely found it a really inspiring exhibition, with the work continuing into the street outside.
There was also a children’s competition with some heart wrenching pieces, which we hope decision makers will pay attention to. At the entrance to the exhibition are some shocking statistics, which unfortunately are becoming a bit too familiar: deprived areas of London have 6% higher levels of particulate matter and 13% higher levels of nitrogen dioxide; concentrations of nitrogen dioxide are 16-27% higher in areas where non-white people are most likely to live; 5,900 premature deaths across London from nitrogen dioxide and 3,500 from particulate matter; 10% of London’s children have asthma and others are affected by stunting lung growth.
Air pollution art is also a global phenomenon, as this amazing work by Air of the Anthropocene project has shown. This uses light painting to visualise particulate matter pollution. This is also very personal to Louise, with the first piece shown being from Port Talbot, from where her paternal family hail, and a further one being from Addis Ababa where she spent 9 months. On Port Talbot, the study talks about the tension between the economic benefits of the steelworks and the environmental consequences - which perhaps doesn’t get across how these environmental consequences have health and ultimately economic downsides too. For instance, this Imperial College study showed it could cost the NHS £5.3 billion by 2035.
Back to Julia
Julia Godsiff got in touch just today to say she has updated her amazing website with new works from Mexico, Iran, Nigeria and Limehouse. She said this blog helped her to reach far and wide! Please contact Julia if you would like to be featured on her website - juliabgodsiff@gmail.com. Hopefully some of the amazing artists from the Westway exhibition might get in touch!
Just after writing this, we learnt of another great art installation - on Euston Road. This one actually sucks air pollution from the air! https://www.dentsu.com/uk/en/thiscampaignsucks