Wrights & Sites
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wrights & Sites is a group of British artists who work with site-specific performance[1][2] and walking art.[3] Founded in 1997, Wrights & Sites consists of artist researchers Stephen Hodge, Simon Persighetti, Phil Smith and Cathy Turner.[4] Their work is inspired by the Letterist and Situationist Internationals, particularly the practice of dérive.[5][6][7]
in 1998, Wrights & Sites produced a three-week site specific festival, The Quay Thing (1998) that resulted in six new performance works, as well as a variety of smaller performances throughout the site.[8] Professor Deirdre Heddon has identified this as her introduction to site-specific performance, and an influence on her future work.[9] Subsequently, the group began to explore walking as their primary mode of artistic exploration. Phil Smith has noted, Wrights & Sites walking 'began as an anti-theatrical act' and 'the site-based performances of Wrights & Sites revealed places to be as performed as the performances in them.'[10]
Wrights & Sites walking practices are best known through their 'Misguides', a series of texts they published with contributions from Tony Weaver. The 'Misguides' provide instructions to make familiar places unfamiliar and inspire the reader to playfully subvert the city through walking.[4]
Selected works and exhibitions
- 4 Screens #4: Possible Forests (2007), Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World, Haldon Forest Park
- 4 Screens #2: A Mis-Guide To Anywhere (2006) Gallery of Utopias, for PSi#12 Performing Rights, London
- tEXt & the city (2002) Exeter Picture House
- Mis-Guided To Anywhere (2004) Urbis, Manchester
- An Exeter Mis-Guide (2004) Exeter Central Library
- An Exeter Mis-Guide (2003) Exeter Phoenix
- A Courtauld Mis-Guide (2003-5) Courtauld Institute, London
- An Exeter Mis-Guide (concept pages) (2003) Exeter Picture House
Selected publications
- Stephen Hodge & Daniel Belasco Rogers (2007) 'What is a theatre? Where is it and how do you get there?', in Performance Research, 12.2(June).
- Phil Smith (2007) 'From Theatre To Dispersal: A Journey From Stalowa Wola To Mobile Machinoeki', in Performance Research, 12.2 (June).
- Wrights & Sites (2006) ''A Manifesto for a New Walking Culture: 'dealing with the city'', in Performance Research, 11.2 (June).
- Cathy Turner (2004) 'Palimpsest or Potential Space? Finding a Vocabulary for Site-Specific Performance' New Theatre Quarterly, XX.4(No. 80) (November).
- Wrights & Sites (2000) 'SITE-SPECIFIC: The Quay Thing Documented', in Studies in Theatre and Performance, Supplement 5.