Made in February 2020, before Covid-19 infected our whole world, we breathe... comes from a place of closeness, where sharing the same space and air with other people is part of the normal fabric of life.

Since the film's creation, the nature of our inter-personal relationships has changed dramatically (albeit temporarily); in April 2020, the very idea of touching another person, let alone breathing in their breath, is imbued with fear and suspicion.

I am keen to help people remember that this disconnected state of affairs is only a temporary phase - that sooner or later we will return to a place where we mingle in body as well as in mind; a place where, once again, we will sense the beauty in breath being shared between all living things. Until then I hope that we may still wonder at how such an intimate phenomenon is also so intrinsically communal, and how breathing continues to connect our all our physical, emotional and metaphorical beings.

In its entirety the film is projected as part of an interactive installation, with participants invited to wear ‘breathing apparatus’ – headphones and an elasticated binder to go around their chest – to enhance the awareness of their own breath and and their connection to the breathing of others.

On 27th February 2020 we breathe... was shown at Bristol's City Museum and was described as 'thoughtful, sensory, participatory and beautifully executed' by arts-in-health specialist, Elspeth Penny.

I am hugely grateful for the help and support I was given to make we breathe... Catherine Lamont and Jordan Collver (working as part of Bristol and Durham Universities' Life of Breath project), staff and students of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School - Richard Maxwell, Maya Barker and Obi Mukhopadhyay and many fabulous tutors, technicians and colleagues at Bristol School of Art. Also enormous thanks are due to all the generous people who donated their trust, time, bodies and breath to be part of we breathe...