Marcel Sydney and Tiger Beer have put their Air-Ink to good use in London, erecting a billboard on Shaftesbury Avenue in London, made using Air-Ink inventor, Anriudh Sharma, technology and London’s polluted air.

The OOH campaign is supported by Tiger Beer’s Clean Air Gallery, which it has opened in Brixton. The gallery features work made with the ink, by artists from some of the UK’s most polluted cities, including Glasgow, Leeds, Southampton and Nottingham.

The new campaign is an extension of the 2016 pilot project in Hong Kong, that is being driven by Tiger Beer’s mantra that the best ideas are often born on the streets and not in corporate boardrooms.

Marcel Sydney: Tiger Beer repurposes air pollution to make ink

The Air-Ink initiative will continuing from London to Berlin, New York and Singapore. 19 international artists will join this year’s global movement to transform the collected pollution into Air-Ink artworks symbolising a bright future for the streets of the world’s cities, and inspiring others to take action.

Since its launch in 2016, more than 770 litres of Air-Ink have been harvested – the carbon emissions equivalent of continuously driving a typical diesel vehicle for 2.3 years. Air-Ink also has the potential to be scaled up. If the devices were fitted to all London diesel black cabs, for example, they could save 10-15% of particulate emissions.

Mie-Leng Wong, global director at Tiger Beer, Heineken, Asia Pacific, commented, “Tiger Beer believes in supporting people across cultures with brave ideas, and partnering with them to uncage the tiger spirit within us all to create awareness and positive change for issues affecting our communities. Following the encouraging response to our Air-Ink pilot in Hong Kong, we wanted to further our support of Anirudh and Graviky’s mission against the worldwide issue of air pollution and showcase how street creativity can make a difference. By bringing artists and inventor together, we turned the world into a canvas for Anirudh’s message in a beautiful and transformative way, one we hope will inspire people and community leaders to get behind the cause and benefit from the technology.”

Anirudh’s company, Gravity Ink, hopes that the London and Hong Kong demonstrations will will inspire a city or municipality to conduct their own pilot program together in the near future. Air-Ink artworks will be shown and and live Air-Ink painting sessions will be conducted in iconic London locations where Tiger Beer is sold. And in both London and New York, pop-up galleries will feature works created by various artists using Air-Ink.

Tiger Beer is holding a mural and gallery show in New York for street artist, Buff Monster.

Kristopher Ho, who is creating an Air-Ink artwork for London, commented, “Being able to draw with what’s essentially purified soot has been a fascinating experience and a great way to bring attention to the massive issue of air pollution. It has been really meaningful to work with Anirudh and Tiger Beer and be a part of this creative global community, which I see as a perfect fusion of art and science.  It just goes to show the extent we can all go to make a positive impact on our surroundings.”

Credits:

Agency: Marcel Sydney

Executive creative director: Scott Huebscher

Copywriter: Kevin Masters

Art director: Jeremy Hogg

Artists: Kristopher Ho, Pat Vale, Paul Davis, Mr Doodle, Will Barras, Jonny Hannah, Josh Parkin, Roderick Mills & Good Wives and Warriors (Becky Bolton and Louise Chappell)