Approved: 12.09.2009

Chris A. Wright

Artist, Researcher, Writer

Approved: 12.09.2009
 
 
 

News

     

    Thoughts

       

      Artist Statement

      A multidisciplinary artist, writer and researcher, I work both nationally and internationally investigating, developing and promoting the practice and theory of fine art and philosophy, undertaking exhibitions, commissions, residencies and conference presentations as well as occasional workshops and teaching. Current focus is the intersection of sound, including silence, time and body  but I also use photography, film, installation, sculpture and Internet as media.

      My main research area is  borders and transitory spaces but also important is the field of ideas and what-if’s that are often generated by found ‘objects’ such as snippets of overheard conversation, a lost bus ticket, an echo, a door left ajar with light and voices creeping out or an idea ‘found’ through being in a particular place at a particular time.  These represent the absolute now that peers through the cracks of everyday life and reveals its idiosyncrasies. In the studio, these fractures of the everyday are dissected, amalgamated, investigated with the mind of a scientist, even, to present, finally, a transient snapshot of the contemporary, a set of proposals that continues to ask questions.

      Taking sound and light as if tangible objects enables me to look at their influence on the space around them and also incorporates the sculptural sensibilities of the ‘object’. The conjunction of space and object creates an intersection, a continual disturbance through the dislocation of site. These constantly changing events and relations transform surroundings, creating, locating, altering and crossing boundaries. It highlights the situation of space – open, closed; public, private; belonging, free; institutional, restrictive or can transform space into place, re-configure a border zone and brings into play the concept of time.  My intentions are that by using sound and light to extend the remit of the solid artefact creates momentary structures as solid as the object that re-vision and act as springboard for new thoughts.

      Overall, I see myself as an artist for whom intense research is necessary both theoretically and practically, who is willing to take risks to produce artwork that presents an alternative viewpoint using knowledge that is woven from different disciplines thus creating a unique body of knowledge that is inherent within the final outcome. 

       

      CV & Education

      CV Dr Chris A. Wright May 2021

      [email protected]  07715 175249 www.chriswright.co.uk

       

      I make enquiries into the nature of things, especially the concept of borders and in-between spaces, through different media but especially sound. Sound has a shape that you can hold, roll around, taste, smell, feel, hear and allow your imagination to take you on a journey. Based in the East Midlands, UK, I am an interdisciplinary artist working with sound, film, photography, performance and drawing. Currently, my main practice and research concerns sound and its relationship to time and space, especially at the intersection with the body.  

      Forthcoming

      2023 Le Labo des Arts/Hatchery Artists Caen, France

      2023 Outdoor Sculpture Show, Coventry. Curated by Tammy  Woodrow

      2023 Platform Athens. Plot curated by Jackie Berridge

      2024 Pouch Cove

      2023

      Unplace in Unheard Landscapes pub. Gstaad

      Traversée The Gallery, Broadway, Nottingham

      Lode The Gallery, Broadway, Nottingham

      2021

      October Unplace, Conference paper, FKL, Blois, France

      May Normal Service Will Be Resumed with Hatchery Artists, Artcore Gallery, Derby

      April One minute film included in British Film Institute archive

       

      2020

      Hatchery Artists supported by Artcore, Derby

      June 11th Artist talk faciltitated by Chris Wright with Dee Shiels, Helen Stevenson and Linda Duvall

      June 25th Artist talk faciltitated by Chris Wright with Jackie Berridge, Mary Hayes and Helen Lees

      July 3rd She'd Online exhibition 

      July 17th She'd part 2 Online exhibition 

       

      Winter Narratives, Artcore , Derby Exhibition postponed

      2019

      2019 Winter Narratives Artist residency, Vadodara, India

      2019 Encountering/It is as it was, InDialogue, Lincoln (sound installation and paper)

      2019 In The Hole Duvall’s residency, InDialogue, Lincoln (paper)

      2019 Fold/Unfold, FKL conference, Italy (paper)

      2019 Urban Flows and Non-Flows in Different Rhythms pub. Galaad (publication)

      2019 Summer Lodge Residency, Nottingham Trent University

      2019 Resonation#1 & #2, Alchemies of Research, Birmingham (sound performance)

      2019 Listening to Urban Space, EVA conference, London (paper and publication)

      2019 Wording contribution in Convocations, Helsinki (site-specific writing) 

      2019 Wording contribution in Convocations, Venice (site-specific writing)

      2019 Small Talk in OneMinute Films, Salto TV, The Netherlands (film)

      2019 Territory at Platforms, Athens (sound/video)

      2019 Sonic Site II - cello (Sharman-Dunn) and clarinet (Wright) (project)

       

      2018

      2018 Sonic Topologies in In Cammino verso Il Silenzio (essay)

      2018 Glorious Corruption through Interdisciplinary Approaches University of Wolverhampton (paper)

      2018 Samantha’s & It was in where-how’s, The Hole, New York (photograph)

      2018 Sur et Sous, Grenier a Sel, Honfleur (sound installation)

      2018 Dialogues Honfleur (performance with Louise Garland)

      2018 Auditour,  HMS, Nottingham (sound installation)

      2018 Creative Confessional with Louise Garland, Nottingham (live art)

      2018 Here, there PhD takeover, Birmingham School of Art 

      2018 Tenuto, Birmingham School of Art. (participatory sound performance)

      2018 Ergh mmm & Estuary English Birmingham City Gallery (Sound installation & drawing)

      2018 Inside OutsideThresholds: an adjacent possible, The Tapestry, Liverpool (installation)

      2018 Small Talk in Vol. 9, Oneminutefilms, North Wales

      2018 Small Talk in OneMinute (selection Vol. 1 to 9), curated Kerry Baldry, HMS, Nottingham 2018 Sonic Site, collaborative research project with Ed McKeon, Birmingham

      2018 Meet the Artist www.cvaneastmidlands.co.uk

      2018 EVA Programming committee, London

      2017

      2017 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Contemporary Art Research, Birmingham School of Art

      2017 Encountering/It is as it was Cagliari, Sardinia  (sound installation)

      2017 In The Hole residency, Saskatoon, Canada 

      2017 Not The Hole Story at Losing Ground Conference, University of Warwick  (paper)

      2017 Curating the Idea (Golden, the sculptural nature of silence), Curating the Contemporary.org (essay)

      2017 A Collective Intake of Breath Listening after Pauline Oliveros Symposium, Leeds University (paper)

      2017 Drift and Untold, Art-Athina Platforms, Greece (video installation and photograph)

      2017 Urban Flows and Non-Flows, FKL conference, Cagliari, Sardinia (paper)

      2017 The Identity of the Everyday   in Sound and Soundscapes pub. Galaad (essay)

      2017 Five to Watch https://www.axisweb.org/five2watch/2017/five2watch-language/

      2017 EVA Programming committee, London

       

      2016

      2016 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Contemporary Art Research, Birmingham School of Art

      2016 a-n Critical Writing bursary for Neon, Grundy Gallery, Blackpool

      2016  Making music with light. Electronic short course, Music Hackspace London

      2016 Encountering/it is as it was Harrington Mill Studio Gallery (sound installation)

      2016 Small Talk, All-in-one loop projected show, Chiari, Italy (Film)

      2016 Under   One Minute Volume 9 Directors Lounge, Berlin (Film)

      2016 Under   One Minute Volume 9 Cinema Experimental, Lisbon (Film)

      2016 Under   One Minute Volume 9 at Light Night Liverpool (Film)

       

      2015

      2015 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Contemporary Art Research, Birmingham 

      2015 Digital Tourism  CITAR Journal, Volume 7 (essay)

      2015 Sonic Topologies, SounDay  University of Urbino, Italy

      2015 Anywhere is Everywhere, A Virtual Traveller’s Tale, EVA, British Computer Society (paper and publication)

      2015 The Identity of the Everyday, Soundscapes and Sound Identities, Italy (paper)

      2015 Plot 74 Harrington Mill Studio Gallery (curator)

      2015 Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know Harrington Mill Studio Gallery (curator)

      2015 Palimpsestuous   Nottingham Castle Open (sculpture)

      2015 Begin under the Flyover   The Excursionist, B-side Symposium (provocation)

      2015 Passage For Bees   Winterbourne House, Birmingham (Sound installation)

      2015 Passage For Bees   Haden Hill House, Sandwell. (Sound installation)

      2014

      2014 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Contemporary Art Research,  Birmingham 

      2014 University of Wolverhampton. Visiting Lecturer, Fine Art Contextual Studies 

      2014 The Value of Failure as a Methodology or How to Fail Successfully, Nottingham Contemporary (paper)

      2014 Urban Sunrise  Hanover Project, University of Preston. (Image publication)

      2014 Things happen, Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham. (Photographic installation)

      2014 Summer Lodge residency, NTU, Nottingham

      2014 Land Strategies  and theCommons HMS, Nottingham (self-directed residency)

       

      2013

      PhD Fine Art and Philosophy, (practice-led, part-time) 

      Thesis: The Presence of Absence and Other States of Space, Staffordshire University,  

      2013 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Contemporary Art Research, Birmingham 

      2013 University of Wolverhampton. Visiting Lecturer, Fine Art Contextual Studies 

      2013 The Narrated Present  The Collection, Lincoln (paper)

      2013 Column  tAd Gallery, Texas, USA. (Photograph)

      2013 Play  series. Brewhouse, Burton-on-Trent, UK. (Sculpture)

      2013 Parallel Horizons , Stephen Lawrence Gallery, London (film of installation)

      2013 You are here Stoke-on-Trent (Site-specific installation)

       

      2012

      2011/12 At Home Today, 12 x 12 firstfloorunder, Milan, Italy (Photograph)

      2012 Badedammen Tarpey Gallery, Midlands Open, UK. (Photograph).

      2012 Grass is Greener (on the other side) Blank Media, Manchester, UK. (Installation)

       

       Prior work

      2007-2010 Staffordshire University.  Visiting lecturer, Fine Art

      2010 Re-Semble (residency with Veronica West) Derby. Arts Council supported.

      2010 Artist Residency, Tou Scene, Stavanger, Norway

      2010 Artist talk School of Art, Stavanger, Norway

      2010 Flaskepost Stavanger, Norway and internet. (Sound performance)

      2010 Grass is Greener  ZOOart, Cuneo, Italy. (Archisculptural Performative installation)

      2010 Play  series Waterside Open, Manchester. (Sculpture)

      2010 Taking Off and Landing  AV Festival Newcastle. (Film)

      2010 Grass is Greener  Departure Gallery, London. (Archisculptural Performative installation)

      2010 This is the place where…. in Architectural Disorder, Ovada Gallery, Oxford. (Installation)

      2009 Place: The Future was Here OneDay Sculpture symposium, New Zealand (paper)

      2009 Constellation   MIC Auckland, New Zealand (Interactive light installation)

      2009 This is the place where.., Perhaps Something, Perhaps Nothing  Leeds Met Gallery, UK 

      2009 Taking Off and Landing   Short Shorts, Leeds UK. (Film)

      2008 Chu Unoh   Conjunctions 08 Stoke on Trent (Installation)

      2008 Taking Off and Landing Birmingham ArtsFest08. (Film)

      2008 Play   series, Cupola Gallery, Sheffield. (Sculpture)

      2008 Taking Off and Landing Empire Gallery, London. (Film)

      2007 New Significances Up The Wall, Chester. (Light interventions)

       

      EDUCATION

      2008 - 2013 PhD Fine Art and Philosophy, (practice-led, part-time). Thesis: The Presence of Absence and Other States of Space . Staffordshire University, Faculty of Art and Creative Technologies

      Principal Supervisor: Professor Douglas Burnham

      External examiner: Dr. Francis McKee

      My research argues that absence has an underlying presence that links the territorialized space of the non-place and the interstitial space of the border zone. It is posited that disturbed areas are created that interrupt, amongst other things, placial identity. It was also argued that the term ‘non-place’ has a limited validity in contemporary society. As a fine art, practice-led study, viewing space was continually questioned both with regard to my own practice and to other, mostly contemporary, artists. This was an interdisciplinary study and referenced fine art, philosophy, social and cultural theory, geography and critical theory.

      2008 Postgraduate Certificate in Research Methods, Staffordshire University

      Modules: Directed Study, Research Skills, Comparative Research Methodology

      2006 -2007 MA Fine Art (Distinction) Staffordshire University, Course Leader: Professor Ian Brown (Common Culture)

      Course Leader: Associate Professor Ian Brown

      Modules: Contemporary Curating, Contextual Studies, Masters Project. Research Dissertation ‘Identity of Location’ looks at the identity of location through a dialogue between place and non-place and was a practice-based research that used light and immersive environments as a common theme.

      2004-2005 BA (Hons) Fine Art (2.1) Staffordshire University

      2002-2004 HND Fine Art (Distinction) Macclesfield College, School of Art, Cheshire, UK

      Research dissertation (5000 words) ‘See the Silence’ comparing the uses of the pause or rest in music and the silence represented in visual art.