Breathe: Making the Invisible Visible Fay Ballard and Judy Goldhill Freud Museum, London

Abstract

The exhibition Breathe ran between 16 May and 15 July 2018 at the Freud Museum, London. Breathe represents a penetrating and sensitive exploration of childhood loss, mourning and memory, located within the intimate setting of Freud’s former family home. Through their art, Fay Ballard and Judy Goldhill upset the sedateness of the Freud Museum. Using photography, film, drawing and personal memorabilia, the intangible, foggy presences of their lost loved ones — their parents — become palpable. Ballard and Goldhill breathe new insight into the pain of mourning, the wonder of making, and the desire to know another who has been lost to them. Curated by psychoanalyst Caroline Garland, Breathe charts Ballard’s journey to hold on to memories of her mother whom she lost at the age of seven to pneumonia; and Goldhill’s search for her father, who died of polio when she was a baby.Judy Goldhill’s video Pneuma can be viewed on the artist’s website: http://www.judygoldhill.com/work/Images/47/pneuma/slideshow/1/