Ekene Ijeoma's New 'Breathing Pavilion' Installation in Brooklyn is a Meditative Oasis
The inflatable pillars invite visitors to breathe along with its pulsing lights.
Society as a whole has been living through quite the tumultuous time with the global pandemic, and the US specifically has been dealing with reoccurring political disorder and systemic racism over the past year. It can be a lot to handle and sometimes we forget to take a deep breath, but Ekene Ijeoma — artist, assistant professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT and director of Poetic Justice at MIT Media Lab — has produced a new Brooklyn-based installation entitled “Breathing Pavilion” that encourages us to, even for just a few seconds, participate in a moment of meditation.
Located in Downtown Brooklyn’s Cultural District, the 30-foot circle exhibit is comprised of 20 nine-foot inflatable columns. Each of them gradually alters its vivid orange and illuminated brightness to mimic that of a deep breathing technique. Visitors are strongly encouraged to align their breathing along with the light changes to achieve a few moments of release.
“Between the ongoing struggles in the racial and political movements in the United States and the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be difficult to find the time and space to breathe deeply and rest well”, Ijeoma says. “Until then, in these next few weeks, this pavilion is here to invite the public to breathe into the change within each of us, in sync with one another.”
Breathing Pavilion
The Plaza at 300 Ashland Pl.,
Brooklyn, NY, 11217
Elsewhere in the realm of art, Yayoi Kusama’s ‘Cosmic Nature’ Exhibition just opened at the New York Botanical Garden.
