Rosslynd Piggott
Australia b.1958

Collection of air 2.12.1992 – 28.2.1993 1992–93, Melbourne and various European locations
Ink on paper, satin, cotton and viscose tassels, keys, glass, hock maple; cabinet by David Poulton
South Australian Government Grant 1997 Collection: Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

We rarely have an opportunity to measure or ‘see’ the air we breathe. Rosslynd Piggott allows us to do so, giving form to the ethereal, precious and fugitive.

Piggott creates a visual diary of the intangible in her sculptural installation Collection of air 2.12.1992 – 28.2.1993 1992–93 1992–93. As an homage to seminal French ‘found object’ artist Marcel Duchamp’s 50 cc of Paris Air 1919, Piggott established a daily routine of capturing and labelling samples of air during her travels from her home in Melbourne to destinations throughout Europe.

Together, the samples trace the artist’s passage through Italy and France, visiting friends and viewing significant artworks, indicated by labels such as: ‘Air near Rodin’s Gates of Hell’; ‘Air near Piero della Francesca’s Legend of the True Cross, Arezzo’; as well as the more abstract ‘Air of Paris’. The work presents the air of 65 different moments. Collected and preserved with care, the glass vials separate their precious cargo from the air of the cabinet in which they sit, and from the dynamic ever-changing air we breathe.