Breath

2017 — 2019

Breathing is a shared act. We all breathe from the same air and, exhaling and inhaling, share aspirational practices. 

The work followed the treatment of tangled blood vessels in the brain, or arteriovenous malformations, through an embolisation procedure performed by the Neuroradiology team at Western General Hospital’s Department of Clinical Neuroscience. In this process, a glue-like substance is introduced into the brain which changes the smell of the breaths of both neuroradiologist and patient. As there is no “opening-up” of the body, the procedure leaves no visible scars and this so-called “Onyx smell”, which lingers in the wards after the intervention, is the only physical indicator of the operation that took place.

With the support of the Neuroradiologgy Department at Western General Hospital, Edinburgh

Work developed during the Arts & Therapeutic Design Fellowship at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience NHS Lothian (Einburgh), 2017 — 2019.