Mayor to unveil air quality inspired artwork ‘Breathe:2022’ as he announces £10,000 towards a permanent memorial for Ella

• Sadiq will attend the unveiling of compelling air quality inspired artwork Breathe:2022, as part of Lewisham’s programme as the London Borough of Culture
• The portraits featured in Breathe: 2022 have been developed into large-scale projections, appearing as still and moving images on bridges, buildings, and hoardings across Lewisham

• Nine-year-old Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, who lived in Lewisham, died from an asthma attack. She is the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed on her death certificate.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan will today attend the unveiling of the final phase of artist Dryden Goodwin’s Breathe:2022 project, part of Lewisham’s year as the London Borough of Culture 2022. The Mayor created and funded the London Borough of Culture programme to improve access to culture, bring communities together and provide young Londoners with positive opportunities, with Lewisham the third borough to be awarded the title.

For Breathe:2022, Dryden created a multi-site commission combining drawings of six Lewisham residents and clean air campaigners. These include WHO air quality advocate and Ella’s mum Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah and Anjali Raman-Middleton, co-founder of the Choked Up campaign group. The portraits have been developed into large-scale public projections, appearing as still and moving images on bridges, buildings, and digital hoardings around the borough, inviting the public to imagine a clean air future for all.  Today, for the first time, the 1,300 drawings of the six residents will be animated so the people featured appear to be breathing and the artworks will be projected onto the side of Lewisham’s Old Town Hall in Catford.

In addition to supporting Dryden’s launch, the Mayor will announce that City Hall will contribute £10,000 to the Ella Roberta Family Foundation. This will support the creation of a permanent memorial incorporating a pollution-absorbing statue, wildflower meadow and air quality monitor in memory of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah.

Ella, was just nine years old when she died from an asthma attack in 2013 and is the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed on her death certificate. Her mother Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah founded the Ella Roberta Family Foundation in her daughter’s name and has been working tirelessly to raise awareness of the devastating effects of toxic air pollution on public health ever since. 

The legacy project – named First Breath for Our Future Ancestor - will be installed in Mountsfield Park, Lewisham and include an air quality sensor to help local residents monitor the air they breathe.

Air pollution is a matter of life and death, leading to thousands of Londoners a year dying prematurely. If no additional action was taken to reduce air pollution, around 550,000 Londoners would develop diseases attributable to air pollution over the next 30 years and the cumulative cost to the NHS and the social care system is estimated to be £10.4 billion.  

The Mayor has made tackling the triple challenges of air pollution, climate change and congestion one of his top mayoral priorities. Last week Sadiq announced plans to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) London-wide in August 2023 to ensure five million more Londoners can breathe cleaner air.  

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said:  

“As Breathe: 2022 reminds us, toxic air is a matter of social justice and it affects us all, from cradle to grave, causing asthma and stunted lung growth in the young and dementia in the elderly. The cost of inaction is so much greater than the cost of action, which is why I recently announced the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone London-wide. This will mean five million more people breathing cleaner air, and will help tackle the global climate emergency enabling us to build a fairer, greener London for us all.

“For too many grieving families in London, the urgency of our air quality crisis is painfully clear. That is why it I am proud to support the First Breath for Our Future Ancestor project which will help preserve Ella’s legacy. The memorial will not only serve as a powerful tribute to the life of a much-missed young Londoner but will also help educate others about the dangers of toxic air.”

Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, founder of the Ella Roberta Family Foundation and World Health Organization Advocate for Health and Clean Air, said: “This memorial is not just about remembering Ella. It’s a way to spark a conversation about how air pollution continues to negatively affect children’s lives. I’m incredibly grateful for the Mayor’s contribution in Ella’s memory to enable us to do this.”

Mayor of Lewisham, Damien Egan, said; “We think this is a great idea – a really special way to remember Ella. The statue will be an important talking point and not only a way to improve air quality right here in the park, but also a permanent legacy of our year as the Mayor’s London Borough of Culture. Lewisham Council donated £2,000 earlier this year, and I’m delighted that the Mayor of London will be contributing £10,000.”

Dryden Goodwin said: “I experience drawing as an act of empathy, thinking yourself into another person’s life, their emotions and story as you draw them. As it’s clear we don’t all breathe the same air, the role of empathy will play a vital role if we are going to achieve the change needed locally and globally on pollution. Through animating the hundreds of drawings I have made over the last year, of these six Lewisham residents and clean air activists, the drawings become more than the sum of their parts. Breathe:2022 becomes a metaphor for the essential collective action that we, our politicians and our global leaders must take to secure a clean air future. The influential work of campaigners including Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Deborah, alongside decisions such as the ULEZ and its extension, create undoubted and essential improvements in the air we breathe in London."