A R T I S T P R O J E C T
tAXONOMY OF BrEAtHING
icebox collective
Tax·on·o·my: a way of charting and organizing knowledge.
Taxonomy of Breathing is a socially conscious, multidisciplinary art proj-
ect that investigates our current societal moment through the lens of
breath—its vulnerability to restriction, and its power of transformation.
The fragility of the body—with breath as its essential element—is a
manifestation of our environment, our historical moment, and our
political and social context. It is at once foundational and aspirational,
embodied and symbolic.
This current watershed moment can in many ways be crystallized,
condensed, illuminated, through the lens of the breath. The breath and
our respiratory system are the primary targets of this virus that has swept
over us and that is still reshaping the world. It is the site of the trans-
gression, violence, and oppression that catalyzed an uprising for racial
justice that has not been seen in a generation: “I CAN’T BREATHE.”
Wildfi res choke the West. Covid-induced isolation has resulted in blue
skies in Beijing and New Delhi. Must we choose between mobility and
the black lung? The pandemic, racial injustice, environmental cataclysm
—the breath connects them. The breath, cependant, also holds the prom-
ise of transformation. In the midst of the despair, desperation, dissolu-
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© 2022 arTMargins and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
https://doi.org/10.1162/artm_a_00306
all images © ICebox Collective
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tion, and depression that follows this slow-moving unraveling of life as
we knew it, there is incremental movement towards mindfulness and
meditation, anchored by and centered around the simple observation
of the act of breathing. Grounding us, slowing us, silencing us, giving
us space to expand, offering us distance from and perspective on what
we can and cannot control. In some ways, it seems that perhaps the
breath is all we control . . . except when we can’t.
There is an expression used in some Spanish-speaking countries
concerning memory and conflict: “respirar por las heridas,” which trans-
lates to “breathe through the wounds.” In this moment, it may also help
us locate breath as both present at the site of the wounds and capable
of transforming them—the promise of healing, faith in the regenerative
power of life, our ability to survive.
Our project explores the “act of breathing” as an archive of fleet-
ing moments. Taxonomy of Breathing was born of the basic need to
understand the world in 2020. A group of artists—now the ICEbox
Collective—started by drawing a map. We charted current events: police
brutality, smoke and wildfire, and COVID attacking the lungs. Nous
found these seemingly disparate disasters were all connected by the
breath. And in following the thread of breath through spiritual and heal-
ing practices, and the concept of “breathing through the wounds,” we
discovered a platform for connections across cultural boundaries; and a
structure to spark conversations and build an archive of this watershed
moment in history.
Global issues need global perspectives, so we distributed 100 maps
across the globe to gain critical and diverse perspectives on how people
were experiencing their world. The maps amount to an international
round table discussion to gain a more complete understanding of the
complexities of this historical moment. The participant responses to the
maps were cataloged and laser cut into a system of varying shapes, alors
assembled into one large scale installation, resulting in a multi-layered
aggregated map of written reflections, suspended as if prayer flags, as a
witness to this moment. This aggregated map is also the source mate-
rial for a complex body of ART projects that further unpack and explore
individual elements of the map: drawings, photographs, paintings, vid-
eos, and music compositions, all in various stages of production, depuis
complete to conceptual. Taxonomy of Breathing aims to generate in the
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icebox collective | taxonomy of breathing
breather, the listener, the viewer, a visceral, embodied effect that redi-
rects awareness to the centrality of this simple, vital act with conse-
quences in the political, sociale, environmental, intellectual and spiritual
royaumes; a ripple effect that expands and touches the entire world. Follow
the project at www.iceboxcollective.studio.
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artmargins 10:3
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