Saturday, March 21, 2015

Matt Stokes: 'Cantata Profana' Dilston Grove, London, UK

Image: Matt Stokes, Cantata Profana, 2010. Installation at Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel. Photograph by Nils Klinger Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Matt Stokes: Cantata Profana

Dilston Grove

Southwark Park,

London

SE16 2DD

http://www.cgplondon.org

 

27 March-26 April 2015, open Friday, Saturday & Sundays 11-5pm

Private View: Sunday 22 March, 2-5pm

 

Matt's Gallery and Dilston Grove present the second in a new series of co-productions Cantata Profana by Matt Stokes.

 

The exhibition runs parallel with a new commission of work at Matt's Gallery, Madman in a Lifeboat (1 April-24 May 2015). The presentation of both works across east and south London this spring marks the culmination of Stokes' year-long Bartlett fellowship.*


Cantata Profana is a six screen video and sound installation focusing on the physicality of extreme metal vocalists and the ability of their voices to immerse a listener and transcend both the individual performer and group.

 

Cantata Profana takes the form of an amphitheatre of video projections presenting a new musical composition, created in partnership with British composer Orlando Gough, artist and musician Tim Kerr and six grindcore vocalists. Cantata Profana interweaves extreme metal music culture with classical choral traditions, to create an unexpected union. The intense sounds and body movements of the vocalists, together with the backdrop of the outdated German Democratic Republic radio studio in which the piece was filmed, all contribute to the atmosphere of this unique and enveloping work.

 

Stokes' practice has developed from a long-standing enquiry into events and beliefs that shape people's lives and identities. Music - its history, subcultures and socio-political effects often provides the catalyst for researching and forming collaborative relationships with musicians, writers, actors, composers and communities, bringing together their interests, knowledge and skills in potentially conflicting situations. By exploring the resulting exchanges of ideas, the final outcomes challenge our assumptions and understanding about specific scenes or chosen ways of living.

 

The vocalists featured in Cantata Profana include: Anders Bakke (She Said Destroy, Norway), Chris Butterworth (Kastrated, UK), Dente (Rompeprop, Netherlands), Alex Hughes (Hatred Surge, USA), Alex Jockel (Krupskaya, UK), Der Kurt (Paroxysm, Germany).

 

The piece was originally commissioned by Kunsthalle Friericianum, Germany, produced by Forma Arts with support from De Hallen Haarlem, Netherlands and Arts Council England. It has been exhibited at Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel; De Hallen Haarlem and Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead. Cantata Profana is presented in association with Forma Arts.


*Matt Stokes is the first Bartlett Fellow, a new residency-based fellowship established by Fine Art at The University of Newcastle in partnership with Matt's Gallery.

 

Matt Stokes (b.1973, Penzance, Cornwall) and has lived, studied and worked in the north east of England since 1993. In 2006, he was the winner of the Beck's Futures Prize, and in 2012 was shortlisted for the Jarman Award. Recent solo exhibitions include In Absence of the Smoky God, Site Gallery, & Sensoria, Sheffield 2014; Dance Swine Dance, Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool 2014; Give to Me the Life I Love, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne & The Whitechapel Gallery, London 2013; Nuestro tiempo/Our Time, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC), Seville, Spain, 2011; Cantata Profana, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, 2011; The Distant Sound, De Hallen, Haarlem, Netherlands, 2011 and No Place Else Better Than Here, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany in 2010.

 

http://www.workplacegallery.co.uk/artists/21-matt-stokes/works/7569/
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