Above: Poster for Phil & Nadia’s talk at The Morrab Library Right: Philip Riley and Nadia Peters in the Elizabeth Treffry Room during their week’s Residency at The Morrab Library

In September 2024, we welcome artists Philip Riley and Nadia Peters to the Library for a week’s Residency where they explored the library’s relationship with nature, taking inspiration from our historic book collection.

Nadia Peters is a mixed media installation artist based in Manchester. Her work is inspired by her surroundings and incorporates found objects. Phil Riley is a Cyprus based artist. Working in plaster using natural forms found on location, his practice now includes casting in sand. Phil’s subject matter is influenced by both his international and Uk artist residencies.

Philip and Nadia work collaboratively with mixed media, inspired by their surroundings and incorporating found objects. From the 16th-25th September used our historic book collection as a visual and literary starting point for the creation of sculptural work.

They focused particularly on the animal images from the work of Swiss naturalist, Conrad Gesner and his important 16th century encyclopedia Historia Animalium. Found organic and vintage material collected locally was incorporated into their sculptural response to the library building, historic artefacts and the location itself.

As well as the opportunity to meet the artists each day of the residency as they work on their creations, Philip and Nadia will presented a talk about how the library and its collections has influenced and inspired their work. 

The artists also hosted workshops at the local St Levan Primary School, where students will had the opportunity to work with Philip and Nadia to create images based on the fantastic creatures depicted in Historia Animalium.