Galway city’s westside community is combining art and citizen science to draw attention to air pollution in their area.
After ten months of engagement with four artists and scientists from the University of Galway, they launched a new exhibition called The Air We Share in Galway Arts Centre on Saturday.
Megs Morely, director of Galway Arts Centre, said the project arose from the need to embed “this very big idea of air into a very localised place”.
“If you think about various other environmental issues that are at stake – the sea, land pollution – they’re very visible to us, very tangible. But the air is something you just don’t see, it’s so easily forgotten and it’s difficult to comprehend.“ Air pollution arises from the burning of fossil and solid fuels and causes significant health problems while also contributing to global warming. The World Health Organisation has said there is no safe level of air pollution.
RM Block
However, the particles causing these problems are a fraction of the size of a human hair, and are therefore impossible to see.
“The data alone is not really telling the story of what’s happening,” says Morely. “The scientists I think are aware that all of that data is somewhat meaningless unless you can have an understanding of what it’s doing.”
The community was designated as a decarbonising zone by the local authority in February 2024, which means they are experimenting with different ideas to achieve higher targets for decarbonisation.
Seven air quality monitoring stations were set up by scientists from the University of Galway in the westside to capture how the air quality of the city changed over time.
Artists then visualised the data with the help of the community using textiles, clay and digital media.
“I was interested in finding some way to make [the data] relevant to people ... to translate it into a way that gets a reaction from people or gets people to think about it in a different way,” says Leon Butler, who produced a digital installation, called Phosphene, that transforms live air quality data into sculptural and digital forms.
Needles and threads were the conversation starting point for the textile collective “a place of their own” involving Sam Vardy and Paula McCloskey. They produced a tapestry with the community which imagines future air rights for all creatures that inhabit the air.
Artist Christopher Steenson chose to use the concept of breathing and sounds to make “imperceptible” air pollution present and understandable.
“We often think about our body as being this contained vessel, and the breath being the soul traditionally. I was interested in how you could think about breathing as this way of extending your body beyond yourself.
“The idea that when you breathe in and out you’re in exchange with this wider collective body, this communal body,” Steenson explains.
He brought residents of the westside on walking tours with air monitors and a headset system that produced different sounds when the air quality changed in a particular place.
Steenson’s exhibited piece has a series of melodic bowls that ring out when the air quality in the room becomes poor. A pedestal fan in the centre of the room delivers a monologue which is also affected by the air quality sensors: when the air quality is very poor, she begins singing.
“It’s a little bit absurd, it’s trying to be generous with a little bit of humour in the artwork,” says Steenson.
The Air We Share is funded by the Creative Climate Action Fund. The free exhibition runs from the August 13th until Sunday, September 21st and is open from Tuesday to Saturday.
