Offer: collectors receive a complimentary viewing of Philip Clemo's documentary First Breath.
Breath: Vatnajökull glacier, Iceland is part of Breath, a collection of eight artworks launched by Philip Clemo as part of The Breath Project, to mark Earth Day 2021.
Also launched on Earth Day is First Breath, a bold, innovative non-verbal documentary directed by Clemo which explores the journey of human ageing through the diverse landscapes we inhabit, including our own bodies. Purchasers of artworks from this collection will receive an email giving them free access to the streaming of First Breath.
Clemo began working on The Breath Project in 2008, filming from a helicopter over Iceland. He was captivated by the extraordinary landscape of that country and he has returned to film there several times since.
Breath is a journey through the landscapes of life, exploring the mimicking and mirroring that occurs across the diverse terrains we inhabit, from the micro to the macro, even on our own bodies. The project, in collaboration with world-leading technology companies, has utilised ground-breaking technology to capture imagery and sound in ways that go well beyond our ordinary perception. Ultimately Clemo wants to challenge any perceived familiarity we may have of the world we inhabit, through the use of ambiguity and abstraction. He encourages us to experience our planet afresh and without judgement - with a child’s eye view. Ultimately he hopes that developing new and less analytical perspectives may help foster a deeper connection to our fragile home encouraging us to take better care of it.
" Several years ago I visited Iceland and left with a book of extraordinary photographs by a German photographer Klaus D Francke. His images were like oil paintings and had a beautiful abstraction but they were all of Icelandic landscapes shot from a plane. That planted a seed. Could I do the same with moving imagery? I hired a helicopter, specialist aerial cameraman and one of David Attenborough’s top slo-mo cameraman (for ground-based shots) and went on to make a 42 min film. I then took the film to Cannes where I met David Lynch’s producer Joni Sighvatsson who is Icelandic. He encouraged me to turn this film into a feature film; I secured funding from the Arts Council and EU and pursued that goal; meanwhile Breath splintered into many different projects including imagery for my live shows, the First Breath short and my work for Sedition. So without that crazy trip to Iceland I might not be writing this to you now!" - Philip Clemo
This series of works comes from the early stages of Breath. The imagery was shot in Iceland and Norway.