Why Art - FRESH AIR

 Sarah Lewis, Linda Egner, and Joanne Warner

The FRESH AIR sculpture at Birdsong Gallery, in Hamden, is an occasion to take pause, to breathe, to be free of obsessive, routine thinking - for a moment. 

A 25 foot glass construction sits on a raised garden type trough containing two tons of earth and hundreds of plants producing oxygen and produce. 

The hermetically sealed glass case equipped with two-way respiration masks and tubes provides oxygen, as we inhale, CO2 when we exhale. The exhaled carbon dioxide nourishes the plants and becomes the physical material of the leaves and stems which then, after photosynthesis, cascade oxygen into the sealed chamber. 

Together with plants, we breathe interdependently. Inhaling air through the nostrils and breathing less than 5x/minute our bodies begin to relax due to the secretion of serotonin, a neurotransmitter. 

We may notice, breathing in this way for one or two minutes, the body begins calming. 

Contemplating this we may see ourselves as conduits of an interdependent, interconnected system. 

Together with the plants, we create air for people to breathe interdependently in the future. 

By June 29th, the conclusion of BREATHING ROOM installation, enabled by our CO2, the plants will have provided an abundance of edible food.

The FRESH AIR sculpture is a functioning model of interdependency/interconnectivity between plants and people; and people and people.

35 years ago numerous glass containers on mobile structures were deployed to polluted urban streets in Europe and America. Over 100,000 people, from 1990-1995, enjoyed the project, as co-creators of the sculpture.

For the 1990 Earth Day the City of New York commissioned the project which was approved by the New York City Board of Health. The glass chamber sat in the back of a pick-up truck. The next iteration was the Swiss version for ArtBasel’90, in Basel, Switzerland, where a 20 foot long glass container on a flat bed was pulled by a large red tractor.  

In the years that followed, FRESH AIR was iterated on the Swiss, postal wagon system, little wagons containing glass chambers toured through Switzerland, Germany and France. 

FRESH AIR was inspired by the BREATHSCULPTURE, a 10-day endurance event in which DiLeva-Halpern lived in a hermetically sealed glass container breathing once/minute with 10,000 plants. He later extracted the plant and human made air, compressed it into welded, sealed, steel tubes - calling it ART FOR THE 21st CENTURY. 

Using his own research, together with a national Dutch university for plant research, he calculated that every 24 hours one square yard of green produces one cubic yard of breathable air and that one cubic yard of air was required for every hour of breathing. Hence, the formula of 24 square yards was achieved. 

When Halpern emerged from BREATHSCULPTURE, in June of 1989, he was struck by the inability to breathe the air outside the glass house. It was “too thick!” Medical doctors, said Halpern's blood was 25% too much hemoglobin, “that of a person who's been at a 5000 meter high mountain.”  

Observing the trees surrounding the glass house in this medieval church courtyard in Hoorn, Holland, he realized how interdependent he was with plants and trees around him. 

This profound experience and revelation inspired DiLeva-Halpern to create FRESH AIR, “… So others could experience this, too.”

On June 29th, when BREATHING ROOM at Birdsong ends, the air made with plants by Delaware County residents will be extracted and preserved. 

Last weekend’s opening saw about 40 participants. More visited over Saturday and Sunday, thanks to “word of mouth” and the Hamden Green Market at Birdsong.

Thanks to Institute for Cultural Activism International, Delhi, Birdsong Farms Gallery, in Hamden; many thanks to all of our partners, friends and sponsors for creating this event and opportunity for regional participants to enjoy. Thanks to all participants. Have a great summer 2025. 

“Inhale the past, Exhale the future.

Join us for poet Alana Siegel’s 7 Part Halcyon Series, opening Friday 13th, June, 5:30 at Birdsong Farm Gallery.

Summer Project curator, Emily Marie Harris

More info: studioicai.org