NADFLY is an artist studio specialising in transformative community engagement across wayfinding, placemaking and performance. Say hello
our clients include:
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Park PUZZLE
Bridge of Don, Aberdeen, March - April 2018Puzzle signs are placed across the beautiful Westfield Park, for you to assemble the full image in your mind. Our map accompanies you on a journey to collect each of the twelve pieces, ticking them off as you collect each one.
789 ROUTES
Elgin, Scotland, September - December 2017Building on the success of 123 ROUTES, this second commission brought the experience of discovery to the entirety of Elgin and to the 20,000 people who live there. With six new glphs and entirely new ways to explore, 789 ROUTES bring colour, beauty and a sense of place, inviting people of all ages to walk, cycle and pursue the signs across their town. More wayfinding
RUNNERS
Edinburgh, October 2017RUNNERS is an expression of the social and celebratory role that eating together holds in our lives. A workshop series with older people from the Chinese and South Asian communities in Edinburgh led the design of fabric table runners. Coming together for a meal with family and friends, the fabric designs were presented and shared, demonstrating balance between traditional motifs and contemporary thought that Runners has surfaced from breaking bread with cultural communities. More engagement
123 ROUTES Colouring Book
Elgin, Moray, August 2017Our monograph and colouring book for 123 ROUTES was distributed to nearly 4,000 pupils across Elgin as a legacy document for the project. Matching essay, photography and design with an unusual colouring format, the books are both a functional object and a container of collective memory.
123 ROUTES
Elgin, Moray, February - May 2017123 ROUTES creates pathways of discovery by using art and design within the architecture of the built environment. Imaginative routes proliferate across the New Elgin neighbourhood, inspiring residents to rediscover their area. Unique glyphs bring colour, beauty and a sense of place, inviting people of all ages to walk, cycle and pursue the signs along the routes. More wayfinding
Dumfries Gateways
Queen Street, Dumfries, January 2017 A new social landmark for Dumfries which matches the area’s Victorian heritage, with a gateway that’s function has a playful subtlety. The archway has seats in each pillar, inviting couples to experience the tension of separation at an unusual distance, as their sight lines are broken and remade as people pass through. Made through the historic process of hammered steel by The Forge Squad and with NADFLY ceramic tiles fired in the Rörstrand factory in Sweden. Dumfries Gateways is a placemaking artwork for a community that now has a centrepiece with which they can communicate their neighbourhood. More placemaking
Mosaic Gardens
Union Terrace Gardens, Aberdeen, November 2016Mosaic Gardens is a temporary installation of 200 flags across Aberdeen’s best loved green space. Featuring graphic illustrations of details found within Union Terrace Gardens the flags use a bright thematic palette to illuminated a future vision for the park. The project launched the £20million redevelopment of Union Terace, generating citywide awareness and national press coverage. Over several hundred members of the public were invited to take one flag home with them from this emotive installation, as their own piece of Mosaic Gardens. More engagement
Oat Library Sings
The Summerhouse, Gartnavel Hospital, Glasgow, October 2016A performance piece using video, vocal work and costume, presented in the summer house at Gartnavel General Hospital for a select audience. Repeating vocal patterns were performed alongside video of activated ‘digging’ wild oat seeds. The work draws parallels with the industry of agriculture and cyclical nature of the harvest cycle. Part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival (SMHAFF), theme of ’Time’. More performance
Musical Chairs
Royston, Glasgow, September 2016Musical Chairs is a public art intervention in which porcelain sculptures made in-house by the studio are placed across every street in Royston. The project uses curiosity, surprise and symbolism to build social capital within a socially segregated community. Arranged in sets of three suggesting a conversation the chairs are a symbol of place and belonging, but in a way that can be moved around and shared, creating connections and narratives between local residents.
NO MANNERS
Reykjavic, Los Angeles and Berlin, September 2015 - presentAn international performance project using NADFLY ceramics for experimental music. With a new ensemble of musicians involved in each project iteration and individually unique porcelain bowls, each performance is a one-off. The sessions incorporate the organic learning process of the musicians exploring these instruments and encouraging inventive methods of play. With each performance given deliberately without rehearsal, each person in the gallery, whether participant or viewer, enters into an intense sonic experience of NO MANNERS together.
ABC ROUTES
Markinch, Fife, February – September 2016ABC ROUTES breaks new ground for public art by integrating an artist-conceived strategy into the architecture of the built environment. Unique traffic signs attached to lamp posts create an evolving set of new routes for the community to discover. Each route has a glyph - an intricate hand drawn design with an individual colour - that can be discovered from sign to sign in a journey through the town.
Pathhead Narrative Gate
Pathhead, Kirkcaldy, 2015The Narrative Gate depicts detailed flower designs rising progressively across the gate and fencing, floating upwards. This represents the narrative of growth that each child will experience in their journey through education. The gate has been set back into an arc, creating a communal space where parents can gather naturally at the entrance to the school. 2014 Carnegie Prize for Design and Wellbeing. More placemaking
Never Far Away
Elgin, Moray, 2010Never Far Away redeveloped a piece of town centre infrastructure into a placemaking artwork, reimagining a heavily used underpass. Sixteen-hundred NADFLY porcelain tiles made at the Rörstrand ceramic factory in Sweden create an organic vitality in a previously austere space. Large bold lettering across corrugated metal cladding displays the title - with light bathing the FAR, leading you toward the exit ahead.
Glasgow, G1 5QH