From a 1661 pamphlet imploring action on smog to works by Tacita Dean and Dryden Goodwin, In the Air gives artistic form to the stuff we draw into our lungs
Despite ultra-low emissions regulations, there are still plenty of diesel vans choking up London’s Euston Road, historically one of the most polluted thoroughfares in the country. It is an apt location for an awareness-raising exhibition in the Wellcome Collection, not exactly a breath of fresh air but a bracing, uplifting and potentially reinvigorating exploration of the surprisingly long history of fighting for breath.
In the Air mixes works from contemporary artists including Tacita Dean, Dryden Goodwin and David Rickard, and fascinating archival material revealing earlier battles for clean air which began with Fumifugium, or, The Inconveniencie of the Aer and Smoak of London, a magnificently prescient 1661 pamphlet by John Evelyn which is one of the earliest known writings imploring the authorities to take action against pollution.
