News / Air pollution
Luke Jerram places diesel sculpture on College Green
It’s a dull early morning as local artist Luke Jerram prepares to move his latest large-scale sculpture, Inhale, from his studio in Paintworks. Despite the fact that he is about to embark on this daunting logistic task, Luke is serene and completely composed as he helps supervise the sculpture being loaded onto a trailer, ready to take it through some of Bristol’s most congested streets on the way to College Green.
“This artwork, Inhale, is being installed in central Bristol in the lead up to Clean Air Day to raise awareness of the problem of air pollution in our city,” Jerram says. “It depicts a diesel particle – it’s three million times larger than the real particle.
“The artwork was in part inspired by the recent VW Diesel scandal. Finding out there are more than 15 carcinogens present in diesel exhaust was scary. I hope this artwork adds to the pressure on our government to stop its support for all polluting forms of transport.”
is needed now More than ever
The sculpture is three million times larger than an actual diesel particle
Up close, it is obvious just how intricate this sculpture is, and why it has taken Jerram several months to construct. Each piece of carbon is meticulously put together to form an accurate representation of a single diesel soot particle, like the millions that circulate, unseen in the air around Bristol, contributing to hundreds of untimely deaths each year.
After the cautious transfer of the sculpture from studio to van trailer, the team set off to drive over to College Green. Luke, of course, takes his bike.
The sculpture has been placed on College Green for Clean Air Day
Experiencing the arduous journey of transporting Inhale across the hectic and uneven streets of Bristol is certainly an experience, trapped in grinding morning traffic on Rupert Street, the city’s most polluted road, before negotiating the gridlocked city centre.
Arriving at College Green, Luke and his team now have the risky task of removing the sculpture from its scaffold, which weighs around the same as the sculpture itself. They remain light-hearted and work with ease and cooperation, placing the sculpture on its plinth. After a swift dust, Luke displays a smart-looking placard, explaining the purpose behind it: making the city’s pollution visible.
The sculpture was commissioned as part of UWE Bristol’s Our City Our Health project. It will return to We The Curious for an exhibition later in the year.
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