30 Minutes of Air - Stuart Allen
Stuart Allen is an artist whose work deals with fundamental elements of perception such as light, time, gravity and space. He has shown photographs, kites and sculpture in galleries and museums throughout the U.S. and abroad. His work is found in many private and public collections including the Tokyo Kite Museum, the Crocker Art Museum, the DiRosa Art Preserve, UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, and U.S. Embassy collections in Canada, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, and the Republic of Georgia. Allen has completed permanent public art commissions for the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, Canada and the Police Headquarters building in Davis, CA. His work has been published in a variety of books and journals including: Picturing California’s Other Landscape: the Great Central Valley, Terra Nova: Nature and Culture, You Are Here: the Journal of Creative Geography, Zyzzyva and Artweek. Allen has lectured or served as a visiting artist at many fine institutions including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Weisman Art Museum, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and a number of university art departments nationwide. Allen studied architecture at Kansas University and graduated from the photography and video department of the Kansas City Art Institute in 1994. He lives in San Antonio, Texas with his wife Kelly Lyons, their daughter Aidan and son Vincent. Allen is represented by the following galleries: PDNB, Dallas, TX; JayJay, Sacramento, CA; Jan Manton Art, Brisbane, Australia; Haw Contemporary, Kansas City, MO.
Stuart Allen, artist, photographer, sculptor, public art, kite, kite maker, art consultant, Jayjay, haw contemporary, pdnb gallery, science and art
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30 Minutes of Air

30 Minutes of Air: each kite 398 cubic inches, the approximate volume of air I breathe in one minute at rest, 2008
sailcloth, fiberglass, string,
each piece: 7 3/8″ x 7 3/8″ x 7 3/8″ overall: approx. 12′ x 9′ x 3′
permanent installation: South Texas Blood and Tissue Center, San Antonio, TX

Commissioned for the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center, 30 Minutes of Air is a consideration of respiration, rhythm and the passage of time. As the title suggests, each kite encloses a space equivalent to the artist’s tidal volume over the course of one minute: 30 Kites = 30 Minutes of Air.

Notes:
– Tidal volume is the volume of air inspired or expired in a single breath during regular breathing.
– 13 breaths per minute at approx. 30.63 cu. inches = 398.19 cu. inches per minute.