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B R E ATH


I


nvisible and essential, breath is sym- bolic of what it means to be human


and alive. First and last breaths mark the start and end of life, and we can, on occasion, rouse the seemingly dead by resuscitating them. But breath is about more than functional respiration. Almost a sense in itself, breath is taken away by astonishing events, held in anticipation, caught and saved. Sights and sounds may be inhaled like air, while exhaled sighs express unspoken feelings. Unlike other bodily functions –


such as digestion or circulation – the unconscious management of breath may be overruled. Taking control of the body’s movements and breathing deeply can help manage stress and anxiety and increase lung capacity. In Buddhist meditation, the aim of focused breathing is to achieve a higher state of conscious- ness, in which breath is reconnected with the spirit. Aristotle considered breath a nutri-


ent, to be digested like food. While oxygen may indeed be required to feed muscles and organs, the lungs may also be exposed to therapeutic vapours and perfumes, atmospheric pollution and tobacco smoke. The role such environ- mental factors play in bronchial health can create stark social strata of chronic disease.


Observe yourself and you will find that your thoughts and breaths are not only correspondent, but instantaneously coincident: if you


think deeply you breathe deeply; if you hold thought you hold breath.


James Wilkinson in Epidemic Man and his Visitations, 1893


‘Liquid Ground 1’ Photographic print Helen Pynor, 2011 RRa0109 / Helen Pynor


Helen Pynor’s ‘Liquid Ground’ series explores con- nections between the human body and water. In this print, the physically displaced organs appear strangely at home floating in their watery surroundings, which mirror the body’s own internal fluids. Pynor (b.1964) began the series while living and


working beside the Thames at Woolwich, the site of a mass drowning that was the worst peace-time disaster to occur within Britain.


‘550 lives lost’


On a warm late-summer evening in 1878, the pleasure cruiser SS Princess Alice steamed towards London Bridge ferrying over 700 day trippers back from Gravesend and Sheerness. At Gallions Reach, just outside Woolwich, the Princess Alice was hit by a steam collier ship four times her size and sliced in half. She sank in under five minutes.


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‘Liquid Ground 1’


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