︎

Festival of Thrift


Haldane is a monumental artwork on the exterior of TWI Technology Centre in Middlesbrough, UK, that seeks to draw a link between the industrial past and the importance of clean air for our future.

It depicts two enormous canaries in flight. The sentinel species had the ability to give humans advance warning with their heightened senses detecting danger. In mining, they could detect the presence of toxic gases within the atmosphere.  

We were commissioned as part of VIEWPOINTS, a strand of the Festival of Thrift raising awareness of the need for clean air in the Tees Valley.

The finished work uses an op-art pattern within the wings of the birds that tricks the eye into believing the birds are in constant motion. It was created using the world's first non-PVC vinyl - the @3m Envision™ Print Wrap Film. It is GREENGUARD Gold certified to meet some of the world's most rigorous third-party testing standards for low emissions.


Research + narrative
Art production + delivery
Define a curatorial + contextual vision
Engagement + consultation
Project management delivery
Establishing a legacy