Working in collaboration with a class of ten and eleven year olds, at Sefton Park Primary School, Bristol, Gaby used the measured breath capacity of individual pupils to determine the size of each of her 30 porcelain cubes. The children went on to create their own 'breath portraits', drawn on cube-nets and sized according to the measurements of their particular lung capacity.  These pieces were exhibited together at the school itself in 2019.

​30 cubes sit on classroom tables, overlaid by looped, layered audio of the pupils’ breathing - just perceptible as you approach the installation.  

The focus of the work moves from form and materiality, towards one with a concern for personhood. It signifies the intimate, integral space taken up by breath within an individual’s body which, at the same time, connects a group as each inhales and exhales this shared air. 

The cubes were cast in two corners pieces using novel plaster moulds with removable metal walls, of Gaby's own devising.  Each corner was trimmed to size before being joined together. The cubes have been high-fired, sanded smooth and left unglazed.

Held Breath is featured in a blog by Life of Breath: A Wellcome Trust project on breath and breathlessness run by the University of Bristol and the University of Durham.  

Thanks go to Simon Kitson, Rachael Bishop, Harri Nourse and Jordan Collver for all their help and support with this project.