Rhythm Adjust

‘Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.’ – Arundhati Ro

THE BREATH PROJECT presents RHYTHM ADJUST 

A group exhibition co-curated by Danny Mellor and Hannah Payne

The Breath Project presents Rhythm Adjust – Part II, a group exhibition at TM Gallery, London. Following an online launch auction exhibition in June 2021, the physical exhibition includes work by 14 contemporary artists exploring the notion of breath, from abstraction to representation and processes found in nature and the body. The exhibition considers how the Covid-19 virus swept into our lives in the past year we began to think of the collective breath of the UK population, how breath has become a subject that now connects us all globally, and how the role of the arts came to the fore with an ability to provide comfort, lift the spirits and create community at a time when we needed it most.

Breathing is something so vital and yet so overlooked as an automatic process happening in the body without needing active thought. Breath is central to our physical health and our mental wellbeing; it is our constant rhythm and life force from our first breath to our last. The lockdowns of the pandemic saw the world pause for breath in times of fear and uncertainty, our patterns and behaviours came into focus as we slowly adjusted to new ways of living.

Marking a time when lockdowns have lifted and we experience a phase of adjusting our rhythms once more, Rhythm Adjust – Part II includes 30 works by 14 contemporary artists living and working in the UK. Working in a range of media from painting, printmaking, analogue photography and textiles, some artists explore sequencing and repetitive movements creating a sense of calm in their order, while others create works that have a vaporous quality, seeming to hover somewhere between presence and remembrance. Abstract works are a meditation in colour, consider duality and balance, or a change of pace. Natural subjects remind us of our physicality and connection to the wider health of our ecosystems and consider the importance of nature as a place for wellbeing, whether real or imagined.

Artists: Artists: Becky Allen, Daniel Crawshaw, Sara Dare, Justine Formentelli, Ben Gooding, Anna Liber Lewis, Hannah Luxton, Zanny Mellor, Barbara Nicholls, Becca Pelly-Fry, Marion Piper, Tamsin Relly, James Rogers, Alice Wilson