David Rickard (NZ)

David Rickard - Exhaust (2011-2021) video Dorothée Meddens

David Rickard - Exhaust (2011-2021) photography Gert Jan van Rooij

Providing insight into invisible processes, such as the rotation of the Earth and gravity, is a recurring theme in the practice of David Rickard (b. NZ, 1975, lives in London). He has previously done this with air. Air is generally seen and experienced as weightless, but it is not. Depending on altitude, humidity and heat, the weight of air fluctuates a little, but at sea level it is generally around 1.255 kg per cubic metre. In his work A Roomful of Air (2019), Rickard used a pile of lead blocks to indicate the weight of air in a gallery. On the basis of the space’s dimensions and the average temperature of the room, he stacked blocks up to a weight of 788 kg of air. Rickard’s work often operates on the line between sculpture and performance and examines the spatial relationships between people, objects and our environment.

For Brief Encounters '21 Rickard performed the poetic and exhausting 24-hour work Exhaust (2011–2021) in a natural setting for the first time.
On Saturday 4 September at 4pm, the artist sat on a chair among the trees and ferns of De Oude Warande and, for a period of 24 hours, used an oxygen mask to collect all the air he exhaled in an ever-expanding installation of aluminium foil balloons. Depending on the moment when visitors entered the park, they found a differently sized silver tower piling up above and behind the artist and gently swaying in the wind. The balloons contain the air that is needed for our daily survival. According to scientists, adult males inhale and exhale roughly 11,000 litres of air a day. At the same time, the balloons literally show the space that we consume every day simply by living.