The Norns Collective

Durational Performance on Castlefield Viaduct

The Norns Collective is a creative practice formed by Urban Wilderness co-directors Laurel Gallagher, Isla Telford and Jenny Harper. Working together under this shared identity, we use costume, quiet actions and ritual gestures to gently disrupt public spaces and imagine alternative relationships between people, places and the environment.

Our work is rooted in the belief that sleep, dreaming and communal care are gentle radical actions. By ritualising rest and slowness, we create spaces for reflection and embodied connection within fast-paced urban environments.

Durational Performance – Castlefield Viaduct, Manchester

In October 2022, the Norns Collective performed a one-day durational action as part of the public tour programme at the National Trust’s new urban pilot project on the Castlefield Viaduct in Manchester.

The performance took place within Urban Wilderness’s commissioned installation Garden of Possibilities, offering a live, contemplative encounter for visitors moving through the space.

A Performance of Quiet Attention

On 31 October 2022, as visitors followed the guided route across the viaduct, the Norns Collective enacted a slow, silent rhythm of:

harvesting herbs
resting and watching over the space
tending to small gestures of care

Our presence created a gentle disruption — a moment of slowness above the city, inviting visitors to pause, breathe, and shift their attention to the sensory life of the garden around them.

The action reframed the viaduct as a place not only for ecological restoration but also for emotional and imaginative restoration, offering a rare experience of stillness suspended above Manchester’s busy streets.