Shadow Fliers is a collaborative project created by myself, Dr. Thomas Liley (Batlab Finland) and Mia Rönkä (biologist, poet and author). The exhibition was installed at the Lieto | Nautelankoski Museum in June 2022, in a working 19th century watermill and miller’s cottage that sit along the banks of the Aura (Aurajoki) river.

The mill at Nautelankoski exists on a site used for this purpose since the Middle Ages, and continues to be the home of Daubenton’s bat (a species that has been studied extensively by Dr. Lilley at the site), Northern bats, Brandts bat, as well other common species. These bats thrive on the insects that live in and around the water as well as the surrounding environment. They have cohabited with their human counterparts in this area since human habitation began.

Shadow Fliers consists of a series of large-scale double sided acrylic on muslin paintings and accompanying narrative. The paintings re-imagine the bats that live in the structures and within the local environment, drawing from the history of the site and its connection to human habitation.