Wrights & Sites

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.

References

1. Hunter, Victoria, ed. (2015-03-31). Moving Sites: Investigating Site-Specific Dance Performance. Routledge. pp. 15–16. ISBN 9780415713252.
2. Wilkie, Fiona (2002-05-01). "Mapping the Terrain: a Survey of Site-Specific Performance in Britain". New Theatre Quarterly. 18 (02): 140–160. doi:10.1017/S0266464X02000234. ISSN 1474-0613.
3. Heddon, Deirdre; Turner, Cathy (2012-05-01). "Walking Women: Shifting the Tales and Scales of Mobility". Contemporary Theatre Review. 22 (2): 224–236. doi:10.1080/10486801.2012.666741. ISSN 1048-6801.
4. Wilkie, Fiona. "Wri(gh)ting Walking". PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art. 29 (2): 108–112. doi:10.1162/pajj.2007.29.2.108.
5. Smith, Phil (2010-01-01). "The contemporary dérive: a partial review of issues concerning the contemporary practice of psychogeography". Cultural Geographies. 17 (1): 103–122. doi:10.1177/1474474009350002. ISSN 1474-4740.
6. Darby, Kris (2013-02-01). "Framing the Drift and Drifting the Frame: Walking with Wrights & Sites". New Theatre Quarterly. 29 (01): 48–60. doi:10.1017/S0266464X13000055. ISSN 1474-0613.
7. Hancox, Simone (2012-05-01). "Contemporary Walking Practices and the Situationist International: The Politics of Perambulating the Boundaries Between Art and Life". Contemporary Theatre Review. 22 (2): 237–250. doi:10.1080/10486801.2012.666737. ISSN 1048-6801.
8. "Wrights & Sites: The Quay Thing (Main Season)". www.mis-guide.com. Retrieved 2016-07-08.
9. Heddon, Deirdre (May 2007). "One Square Foot: Thousands of Routes". PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art. 29 (2): 40. ISSN 1537-9477.
10. Mock, Roberta (2009). Walking, Writing and Performance. Bristol: Intellect Books. p. 82.