wellcome windows: Past displays

Exciting art in the windows of the Wellcome Trust headquarters at 215 Euston Road, London

Timorous Beasties, November 2005-November 2006

Scottish textile designers Timorous Beasties created this installment for the windows of the Trust's headquarters. The prestigious commission was yet another initiative from the Trust engaging the public with science through art in a highly visible location passed by thousands of people every day.

Timorous Beasties' designs, inspired by the Wellcome Trust's work on the human genome and malaria, included 48 lamp shades featuring tsetse flies, paisley patterns made from germs, argyle checks made from syringes and other motifs featuring veins and human fetuses. These hung as a double helix, mimicking the shape of DNA, spanning the full height of the 5 metre high windows.

A specially commissioned lace 'mosquito net', the most basic defence against malaria, hung behind the lamps. The lace featured a delicate pattern made from interwoven mosquitoes, microscopes and syringes. It was produced for Timorous Beasties by Morton Young and Borland, which owns and runs the only remaining lace-making machine capable of producing 5 metre repeats.

Once Were Farmers, a young Scottish animation company, created four films to complement the window displays. These were projected onto the pavement in front of the windows, drawing attention to the installation. They also took images from the Wellcome Trust collections that relate to the designs by Timorous Beasties.

Doshi Levien, September 2004-November 2005

Doshi Levien created a series of three window displays, each consisting of a stage set, with a secondary window conveying supportive and provocative words and statements. The displays were created using a 'pop-up book' format with tilted perspective, featuring larger-than-life props and specially commissioned objects.

In their potent interpretation of our mission statement and objectives, Doshi Levien drew on the full range of the Trust's rich history, from Henry Wellcome's historical collections through to the cutting-edge biomedical research that we fund today.

Doshi Levien said: "The whole series is based on the idea of transferring knowledge through storytelling. We wanted the viewers to be engaged while learning something about the Trust. We wanted it to be accessible and humanist, not filled with scientific and medical jargon, but health and wellbeing issues that concern us all."

Sanger Kitchen, June–November 2005

The third set in the series was 'Sanger Kitchen'. The set window was a kitchen-set-come-laboratory referring to the work of the Sanger Institute and issues relating to the human genome. On the yellow tiled wall, there was a diagram of Mendel's law of dominance, with the chromosomes that have been sequenced by the Sanger Institute scattered on the floor. The window also included a 'shelf of life', tools that represented the DNA bases, and bottles that highlighted alternative systems of medicine.

The second window referred to the genome often being called the 'recipe book of life', continuing the kitchen theme.

Café Wellcome/Curiosity Funding, February–June 2005

'Café Wellcome' used a combination of product and painting to communicate ideas about curiosity and the funding activities of the Wellcome Trust. The tabletops were spinning zoetropes with animations inside. The 'Wellcome specials' menu board displayed a selection of the projects funded by the Trust.

The newspaper was the 'Financially Independent Times' and the lab experiment on the wall represented the five funding activities of the Trust: special initiatives, biomedical science, medical humanities, public engagement and technology transfer.

The text-based window underlined the main objective of the Trust: to fund exceptional research. It also conveyed our independent charity status.

Wellbeing Centre/How Are You?, September 2004–January 2005

Based on the theme of health and wellbeing, this window revealed both the legacy of the Trust and our current objectives. Some of the inspiration here came from the book and exhibition Medicine Man: The Forgotten Museum of Henry Wellcome.

The second window in the set (above) placed emphasis on an otherwise casual question. The surrounding text offered the various nuances of "How are you?", allowing readers to interpret this question in their own way. For instance, "How is work?", "How content are you?", "Are you eating well?", "Tell me, how do you feel?" or "How is your heart and your soul?"