Piggott speaks of ‘making works that offer a kind of sanctuary’, and of seeking remedy for ‘a lack of connection with the natural realm, a shortage of experience that may encourage us to be kinder and more humble to each other and to our planet’. The expansive, subtly layered fields of colour she creates provide an opportunity for us to fuse with the ‘particle space and vice-versa, like a type of breathing’.

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.