Shadow Fliers | Varjojen lentäjät

Shadow Fliers | Varjojen lentäjät is a collaborative project created by American artist Rebecca Saylor Sack; Dr. Thomas Lilley, Academy of Finland Research Fellow and Curator of Mammals at the Finnish Museum of Natural History and cofounder of BatLab Finland; and Dr. Mia Rönkä, researcher, science writer and poet. The work weaves natural history and imagined narratives to celebrate the symbiotic relationship between bats, plants, and humans.

Shadow Fliers comprises a series of large-scale, acrylic on muslin paintings and accompanying narrative. The work was created for and originally installed in the historic buildings at the Nautelankoski Museum, in Lieto, Finland.

The Nautelankoski Museum is situated along the banks of the Aura River (Aurajoki), the site of a water mill since the Middle Ages. The standing structure (which remains a working mill) was constructed in 1807.

The mill has been and continues to be the home of Daubenton’s bat (a species that Dr. Lilley has extensively studied at the site), Northern bats, Brandt's bat, and other common species, including Nathusius’s pipistrelle and the Brown Long-eared bat.

These bats thrive on the insects that live in and around the water and the surrounding environment. They have cohabited with their human counterparts in this area since human habitation began.