Artist Lucy J Wright is based in Leeds, UK. Her practice sits at the intersection of folklore and activism, often using as source material her 10+ years of cited research into lesser-known contemporary and female-led folk customs.
Believing that present understanding of ‘folklore’—including its current resurgence in popularity—is often both limiting and exclusionary, her work is concerned with exploring folk as an agent for resistance and change—speaking to the culture we create for ourselves and its radical potential. Via her ongoing interventions in and with existing folk practices, and playful invitations to participation —especially to those currently sidelined/excluded from the narratives and ‘territories’ of folk (incl. e.g. rural places, public spaces and a sense of shared national heritage)—her work asks, ‘what are the new traditions—of care, of equity and interspecies kinship—we need for living together on our broken planet?
Following a stint as the lead singer in BBC Folk Award-nominated act, Pilgrims' Way, Wright received a Vice Chancellor’s scholarship from Manchester School of Art for her PhD, becoming a Visiting Research Fellow in Folklore at University of Hertfordshire in 2019.
