Chris Wright is an artist, writer and researcher based in Nottingham, practising from a space at Harrington Mill Studios. She describes what she does as ‘practice and research in fine art and philosophy’ and works with film and video, photography, research, sculpture and sound. Current work includes developing particular points of her PhD thesis for publication, finding a strategy for practice-led research and a methodology that has the potential to provide a less subjective means of evaluation and that is valuable to cross-platform research fields. She has exhibited in Italy, New Zealand, Norway and the USA as well as the UK using a wide variety of media. She undertakes residencies and exhibition work that develops her practice and/or her research.
Describe your practice for us.
Making art is like a ramble in woods enjoying the unseen and the unknown. As a transdisciplinary artist and researcher, I am currently focussing on sound (including silence) and light (at its most intense in darkness) to explore borders and other transitional spaces which are my main concern. Taking sound and light as if tangible objects enables me to look at their influence on the space around them and how the ‘object’, transforms its surroundings, creating, locating, altering and crossing boundaries. I collect dropped words, lost knots, discarded things to bring the unexpected into my practice and develop new ways.
How long have you been practising?
As a serious proposition, it was more or less when I began my MA in Fine Art at Staffordshire University about nine years ago. The intensity of full-time study was so productive, so much fun and for a year, I just worked and began to get exhibitions and residencies. As a late starter, I had a lot of things that I needed to experiment with and continued with a PhD in Fine Art and Philosophy.
What is the most interesting/inspiring thing you have seen/been to over the last month, and why?
Firstly, Margaret Humeau at Nottingham Contemporary and the huge breadth and depth of ideas that went into the work. I unexpectedly came across Perpetual Movement at The Lowry, Manchester showing Katie Patterson, Leila Johnston, Michaela Zimmer and Goshka Macuga. It looked at the convergences between art and dance which loosely coincided with themes of InDialogue, a brilliant symposium at Nottingham Contemporary at the beginning of December. Reading Karen Barad’s Meeting the Universe Halfway has made me broaden my outlook and look more intently at intersections of art and science. Juxtaposing all these ideas makes a thought-provoking start for 2017.
Which other artists’s work do you admire, and why?
Katie Patterson is one of the artists that I follow. She delves into the minutiae of ideas, undermining the conventional route to produce something thought-provoking. Ronan Ondàk, again for the unexpected, and simplicity with which he presents his work. Rirkrit Tiravanija, Francis Alÿs, Elmgreen and Dragset – all artists that present ideas for further thought rather than the finite.
Where can people see your work?
Studio visits are always welcome by appointment, I have ongoing projects to show. I have no work showing currently but will be at Art-Athina, Athens in May with Harrington Mill Studios. My work can also be seen in my Axisweb profile.
Chris was interviewed in January 2017.
Images:
6. While the Dogs lie Sleeping, with audio link
All images were taken by and are courtesy of the artist.