PERFORMANCE
Plough’d II
“Folk is the stuff we make, do and think for ourselves—and the radical potential of these things.”
What if ‘folklore’ wasn’t just a niche interest, but a potent agent for resistance and change?
Plough Lights
About Lucy
Lucy Wright is an artist 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.
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 before becoming a Visiting Research Fellow in Folklore at University of Hertfordshire in 2019. Recent activities include solo shows at Portico Library, Manchester; Field System, Devon and Kristian Day Gallery / Haarlem Artspace, Derbyshire; group shows at Leeds Art Gallery and Compton Verney, residencies at Hospitalfield and the Hugo Burge Foundation, and features in Sunday Times Style and Weird Walk. In 2025, she is an invited speaker at the British Academy and part of Claire Bishop’s ‘Ancestral Avant-gardes’.
Lucy is a ‘hedge morris dancer’, author of the ‘Folk is a Feminist Issue’ manifesta, and originator of ‘Dusking’, a 100% invented tradition and annual participatory project for anyone who has ever wanted to dance the sun down! She is currently writing her first book.
'a vital, questioning, vibrant force of nature...Wright is an ascendant star who seems entirely and univocally herself, no matter where and with whom she practices. '
—Caught by the River, Kirsteen McNish
'mainstay of a scene aiming to remove folk from male, pale and stale hands and return to them to the people'
—Sunday Times Style, Kate Spicer
Recent rites + rituals
Recent rites + rituals
Future Folk Archetypes
Photo by Leonie Freeman
Anyone can go out Dusking. In fact, you don’t even have to go out to take part, if you don’t want to. You can Dusk in your living room, or back garden, or wherever suits…’
What is Dusking?’ Tradfolk
Mirie it is (Dusking II)
Video by Jonny Randall | Sounds by Elspeth Anne, featuring Jennifer Reid | BSL translation by Kylie Darling