Cape Farewell, in partnership with B-Side, have today announced that Michael Pinsky’s Pollution Pods will be hosted at the Stadium Bowl, Portland from 29 June – 1 July. The free, immersive installation uses specially created conditions to simulate the air quality in cities around the world. In a series of interconnecting pods, visitors will feel, taste and smell the environments that are the norm for much of the world’s population. The installation has toured to enormous acclaim worldwide, with over 10,000 visitors taking part in the 2018 European tour, as well as a week-long residency at Somerset House.
On Friday 28th June, a specially curated discussion event featuring artists Michael Pinsky and Leni Dothan will look into the impact of art on public perceptions around climate change. Prompted by the invisible enemy of air pollution Leni has worked with the Chemistry department of University College London (UCL), to create an experimental work highlighting the damaging effects of pollution and the healing powers of clean air.
From 29 June to 1 July 2019, Portland will host Pollution Pods, a unique interactive installation which will allow visitors to experience different levels of pollution and air quality from cities across the world.
At the Stadium Bowl, visitors are invited to pass through a series of climatically controlled pods and compare five contrasting global environments. Within each interconnected dome the air quality, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide levels of five cities is recreated. Starting with the truly clean air of Tautra in Norway, the journey continues through the smog and pollution of London, New Dehli, Beijing and Sao Paolo.The Pollution Pods were created by artist Michael Pinsky for the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and commissioned to test whether art can really change people’s perceptions of, and actions around, climate change. With one in five children in London now having asthma, and over half their young counterparts in Delhi suffering with stunted lung development from which they will never recover, visitors are invited to experience the direct, physical result of Western consumerism on the pollution levels in countries across the world.
Much of this pollution is driven by the ever-increasing needs of capitalist consumerism and urban transport. And whilst much of the developed world still live in an environment with relatively clean air, the ill-effects of airborne toxins can now be seen not only across industrial centres such as China and India, but across many cities in the UK including London and Manchester.
The experience of walking through the Pollution Pods demonstrates that these worlds are interconnected and interdependent. Our need for ever cheaper goods is reflected in the ill health of many people in the world and in the ill-health of our planet as a whole.
Artist Michael Pinsky says: “In the Pollution Pods, I have tried to distil the whole bodily sense of being in each place. For instance, being in São Paulo seems like a sanctuary compared to New Delhi, until your eyes start to water from the sensation of ethanol, whilst Tautra is unlike any air you’ll have ever breathed before, it is so pure.”
The installation is free of charge to attend.
The site for Pollution Pods has been generously supported by HMP & YOI Portland
With thanks to: BuildwithHubs, Airlabs , NTNU, IFF (International Flavours and Fragrances) , Aromaco, Kings College London, Arts Council England.
For more information about Pollution Pods visit this website
