Troika at Terminal 5

Troika at Terminal 5

words Ana Vukadin

We were invited to a preview of British Airways’ much anticipated Terminal 5 at Heathrow and had the chance to see the enormity of the £4.3 billion project, said to be the size of 50 football pitches.

To celebrate its imminent move into the terminal – scheduled for 27 March – British Airways commissioned seven site-specific artworks, curated by London-based practice Artwise, for the six BA lounges. The commissioned artists, all based in the UK, were Christopher Pearson, Troika, Oona Cully and El Ultimo Grito.

Left is a video of Troika’s Cloud, a five-metre long kinetic structure suspended between the escalators leading up to the lounges. This stylised cloud is made using flip-dot technology, commonly found on 2D information boards, which combines with a specially developed animation programme to produce a constantly shifting “cloud”. What can’t be heard on the video is the beautiful sound produced by the flip-dots continuously moving, which reminded us of the soothing noise of leaves rustling in the wind.