Air: Visualising the Invisible in British Art 1768-2017 (Paperback)

Air explores the tradition in British art of finding inspiration in the airaround us and skies above us. The book weaves its way through British artincluding early experiments with air and studies of clouds, torepresentations of breath (blowing glass, balloons) and wind instrumentsto flying creatures (real and imaginary) and wartime skies, beforeconsidering the physical possibilities of flight which shifted our perceptionsof the landscape, as aerial photography made the view of the earth fromabove available to wider audiences. Contemporary work introduces newenvironmental issues to the narrative, making reference to climate changeand air-borne disease, as well as considering air as an integral componentin the process of making art, to demonstrate how air is everywhere.The beautifully illustrated book includes a number of insightful essayswhich expand on the exhibition’s interweaving themes looking at the lifeof breath from a philosophical position; an exploration of our enduringfascination with the pursuit of ‘ballooning’ from the first intrepid flights inthe eighteenth century from co-curator Christiana Payne, and a nebulousaccount of clouds throughout British art from Gemma Brace, attempting tovisualise the invisible in words.