Gavin Brown
Gavin Brown
I can’t breathe 2020
linocut assemblage on canvas; unique print
Courtesy of the artist
Artist statement:
I can’t breathe.
First came the bushfires. I can’t breathe.
Then came Covid-19. I can’t breathe.
Then racism once again reared its ugly head.
I can’t breathe.
2020—let me breathe.
One positive of the lockdown in 2020 was that I was able to focus on my work without distraction. Being an artist in the studio is an isolated existence. Alone with my thoughts, I felt I had to say something about what was happening in the world outside: It felt obvious that it was all about breath.
The year was suffocating. Devastating bushfires choked the country all summer. Covid-19 had (and has) people dying short of breath. And then George Floyd pleading ‘I can’t breathe’ as he had the life crushed out of him by police.