Flies, Fetuses And Syringes Fill The Windows Of Wellcome Trust HQ
Timorous Beasties win commission to design windows at 215 Euston Road

11 November, 2005, London: Tsetse flies, germs, syringes, and human fetuses are set to fill the windows of the Wellcome Trust following the appointment of Scottish textile designers Timorous Beasties.

The prestigious commission is the latest initiative from the Wellcome Trust - bringing science and art together in a highly visible location, passed by thousands of people every day.

The new window designs will be unveiled on Monday 28 November, remaining in place until autumn 2007.

The Wellcome Trust is an independent charity dedicated to fostering and promoting research into human and animal health. These window displays are used to engage people passing the Wellcome Trust's head office in the Trust's work and resources. The Timorous Beasties design is the second commission; the first was a series developed by Doshi Levien for the opening of the building in August 2004.

Timorous Beasties' designs, inspired by the Wellcome Trust's work on the human genome and malaria, include 48 lamp shades featuring tsetse flies, paisley patterns made from germs, argyle checks made from syringes, and other motifs with veins and human fetuses. These will hang as a double helix, mimicking the shape of DNA, spanning the 5 metre high, 11 metre wide windows.

A specially commissioned lace 'mosquito net', the most basic defence against malaria, will hang behind the lamps. The lace features a delicate pattern made from interwoven mosquitoes, microscopes and syringes. It has been 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 company, is creating four films to complement the window displays. These will be projected onto the pavement in front of the windows, drawing attention to the installation. They too will take images from the Wellcome Trust collections that relate to the designs by Timorous Beasties.

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About Wellcome Trust Windows
The Wellcome Trust is at 215 Euston Road, London, NW1. The design commission by Timorous Beasties is the second in a series of window displays by artists and designers for the Wellcome Trust at their head office, which opened in August 2004. The first window displays were by Doshi Levien.

Timorous Beasties
Glasgow-based designers Alistair McAuley and Paul Simmons established Timorous Beasties in 1990, having met at Glasgow School of Art in the 1980s. The name comes from the Robert Burns poem 'To a Mouse'.

About the Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is an independent charity whose mission is to foster and promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health (registered charity no. 210183).