Three breaths is a work of performance, video, sound, and installation. Working with composer Eunji Lee, the artist created a three-movement score based on her childcare journal, which was developed into a quartet performance for the bass clarinet, alto saxophone, tuba, and percussion. In addition to the performance footage, Three breaths also includes an enormous duct tube structure that surrounds the exhibition setting. The structure is based on the motifs of the “umbilical cord,” “windpipe,” and “tunnel,” while the breaths that appear in the work have been divided into air sounds from the process of the baby’s breath separating from the mother’s body (first movement) and the child’s breathing as it grows (second and third movements). The performance footage includes four male performers. These professional classical musicians appear dressed in pastel tones as they perform amid the components of the duct structure, which they sometimes use as part of their instruments. The sound configuration varies with the type of exhibition setting (including four- and eight-channel formats), and the duct structure can be installed in variable formats based on the shape that appears in the video.

Three breaths was presented alongside Feathers on lips (2020) at Youngjoo Cho’s solo exhibition Cotton era at Alternative Space LOOP. It is a standout example of the artist using performance and video media to express her feelings of anxiety and urgency as an artist after giving birth to a child. The breaths, which may appear discordant, represent the different forms of physical contact that take place between the recipient and giver of care, and they also signify the coexistence of sadness, anger, and joy as the two individuals grow together.