Breathing Blue is a new artwork created by artist Laurence Payot with patients and researchers and in partnership with the Public Programmes Team and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.

People with breathing conditions were invited to share their personal stories, about everyday struggles and positive resilience, which you will be able to hear, layered and intertwined, in the inflatable sculptures. You will be invited to let the sculpture wrap around you and listen.

The shape and pattern of the sculptures were inspired by people’s drawings of the lungs and the air they breathe. Inside the sculptures, at chest level, a fan keeps a constant flow of air as if representing the invisible exchange between the lungs and the environment.

People’s stories were weaved together into a poem created by artist Scott Farlow. They were recorded and edited by musician Ulysses Alvarez.