My Family and Other Animals – Artist Residency with Nadia Peters & Philip Riley

September will see us welcome artists Philip Riley and Nadia Peters to the library, where they will explore the library’s relationship with nature, taking inspiration from our historic book collection.

Philip and Nadia work collaboratively with mixed media, inspired by their surroundings and incorporating found objects. From the 16th-25th September they will aim to use our historic book collection as a visual and literary starting point for the creation of sculptural work. They will focus particularly on the animal images from the work of Swiss naturalist, Conrad Gesner and his important 16th century encyclopedia Historia Animalium, (you can read a library blog about Gesner here). Found organic and vintage material collected locally will be 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 present a talk about how the library and its collections has influenced and inspired their work on the 25th September. 

The artists will also host workshops at the local St Levan Primary School, where students will have the opportunity to work with Philip and Nadia to create images based on the fantastic creatures depicted in Historia Animalium, which will subsequently be displayed at the library on the day of the talk.

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.

We look forward to welcoming them and introducing you to their work