drawing breath : The Journey

DRAWING BREATH : THE JOURNEYS

Jean Fraser began her first cycle journey from Whitstable to Hastings on 16th July, writing and photographing on the way, and arrived at Hastings on the 19th August. A new journey from Hastings to the Isle of Wight starts on 31st May, when Jean leaves Hastings Old Town accompanied by members of Hastings Urban Bikes.

The Drawing Breath project is a response to chronic illness and the changes in self-perception that this can cause. The journeys aim to maximize Jean's physical and mental health through exploring the body’s inbuilt adaptability in the face of major health changes. She also aims to use the project to raise the profile of respiratory disease, to combat the judgmental attitudes which often surround it and to demonstrate the potential of exercise and creativity for managing chronic conditions. At the end of the 2007 journey Jean's breathing had improved and her daily medication had dropped by half, though this was partly due to the effects of seasonal variation.

Jean’s lung function was monitored in 2007 by NHS respiratory teams at various points on the route and she has since made artwork incorporating these test results. She is interested in the interaction of environmental conditions with the skin and organs of the body and in how surfaces of the landscape often seem to mirror the body’s aging processes.

Jean meets different communities and individuals on her journeys and invites you to follow her progress through her blog and to contribute any comments, queries, and your experiences, thoughts and imaginings about breath and breathing, on the website’s discussion forum.

Last year, with funding from Arts Council England, she curated "Drawing Breath Recycled: maps and journeys", a group art exhibition of collaborative responses to her 2007 journey and its breathing themes. The exhibition opened on 2nd October at the Horsebridge Gallery in Whitstable and is now touring hospitals on the south coast with other bookings under negotiation - see Events page.

Besides new photographic work from Jean, other participants include the Canterbury Breathe Easy group, the Eastern and Coastal Kent Primary Care trust, Herne Bay Junior School and Betteshanger (ex-colliery) Brass Band with trombonist and composer Annie Whitehead. Multi-media artists Sue Ridge and Rosa Ainley, who both cycled part of the journey route with Jean, also contributed new work.