GALLERIES I AND II

MATT STOKES
29th-16th Sept

Stokes’ practice is marked by anthropological enquiry and interest in events and informal movements that bind people together. Pills to Purge Melancholy will combine recent and on-going works, alongside a newly commissioned film. This work involves the creation of an experimental piece of music composed for the pipe organ in Edinburgh’s Usher Hall, and collaboration between an organist and group who run a dark ambient music club.
Real Arcadia (2003 – in progress) is an investigation into the history of ‘Out House Promotions’, a defunct acid-house organisation from Windermere, which archives and interprets the clandestine experience of those who attended or were affected by a series of cave raves staged by the group. The project aims to push the received identity of rave culture beyond the media hype it received by revealing the impact of its lost ideals on its survivors.
In a sensitive use of film and sound, Long After Tonight (2005) shows the artist’s capacity for work of great poise. The choice of Super 16mm film to document the restaging of a Northern Soul session in a Scottish Gothic Revivalist church perfectly captures the movement of the spins, flips and drops, lending the work an epic quality.
There will also be an off-site performance in St Giles’ Cathedral of Sacred Selections; a pipe organ recital featuring experimental transcriptions of Northern Soul, Happy Hardcore, and Black Metal produced in collaboration with the Royal College of Organists. This spell-binding event, will offer the unique opportunity to hear the complete repertoire of music in the series for the first time.