The Gainsborough Packet
Matt Stokes’s 176 Residency Exhibition
26 February – 28 June 2009
Community Preview: Sunday 22 February, 3-5pm
176 is delighted to announce Matt Stokes’s first solo show in London. The exhibition will include the newly commissioned song and film The Gainsborough Packet, a social interaction project entitled Club Ponderosa and the UK premiere of these are the days, a two-channel film made during his residency at Arthouse in Austin, Texas, as well as works from the Zabludowicz Collection.
Stokes’s research-based practice is frequently concerned with musical subcultures. He proceeds by acquainting himself with particular groups, their histories and values, then producing films, installations and eventbased works related to his findings. Collaboration and shared authorship are central to his practice, as is an enthusiasm for DIY approaches. For The Gainsborough Packet, Stokes has collaborated with musician Jon Boden from acclaimed folk-big-band Bellowhead, composer Alistair Anderson, who is one of the UK’s leading exponents of the folk tradition, and Tim Kerr, an iconic figure of the US punk and early hardcore scene.
The Gainsborough Packet is the culmination of a year’s research and development, which began with Stokes’s discovery in the Tyne & Wear archives of a letter written in 1828 by an ordinary man named John Burdikin. Tracing the adventures of Burdikin’s life, the letter was the inspiration for lyrics, music and a 16mm film created by Stokes and his collaborators on the project. The Gainsborough Packet engages with folk traditions, contemporary music videos and popular culture, and is being produced with a particular sensitivity to the shared legacy of folk music in Camden and Newcastle/Gateshead, where Stokes lives. Since the rapid growth of these areas during the latter half of the 19th century, folk music and traditions have played an important role in the social and cultural fabric of each area, and this relevance is highlighted by The Gainsborough Packet. The Gainsborough Packet is a co-commission with BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, which will be exhibiting the work from 4 March – 24 May 2009.
Also produced as part of Stokes’s residency at 176, Club Ponderosa takes its name from both the ranch in the famous 1960s TV series Bonanza and a shelter built in a Newcastle neighbourhood by residents of a crescent seeking an independent space to meet and talk. Club Ponderosa will function as a place for performances and social interaction designed and programmed by residents of the area around176. Developed in collaboration with self-organised groups and gifted amateurs, the club will operate within 176, but with its own series of events and a separate entrance and access times. It will also include MASS, a free collective sound system made up of donated elements.
Both works produced as part of Stokes’s residency are being developed partly in response to the history of the former Methodist chapel that houses 176 and its surrounding area.
The exhibition is accompanied by a limited edition publication designed by Hudson-Powell.
176’s exhibition programme includes one artist-in-residence and one curator-in-residence each year. Former residents include artist Gerry Fox and curator Vincent Honoré for 2007-2008. The curator-in-residence for 2008-2009 is Berlin-based independent curator Anna-Catharina Gebbers.
Matt Stokes lives and works in Newcastle/Gateshead. In 2006, he won the Becks Futures Prize. Recent solo exhibitions include Real Arcadia (LuttgenMeijer, Berlin), Now is Early (VOID Gallery, Derry), Long After Tonight (Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago and Ziehersmith, New York), [un]promised land (Attitudes espace d'arts contemporains, Geneva), Lost in the Rhythm (Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin), and Pills to Purge Melancholy (Collective, Edinburgh). Forthcoming shows (both Solo and Group) will take place at, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (Gateshead), Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci (Prato), Deptford X (London). Stokes is currently producing new commissions for Arthouse (Austin) and VIVID (Birmingham).
His first monograph, Lost in the Rhythm, was published in 2007 by Collective and Art Editions North, in association with Temple Bar Gallery. The book documents and explores Stokes’s ‘performance based’ investigations into alternative and underground music cultures such as the Northern Soul scene and the Rave phenomenon, with essays by Rob Tufnell, Matthew Collin and Momus.
The Gainsborough Packet collaborators:
Jon Boden: Lyrics
Jon Boden is a folk singer and musician who performs both as a soloist and in groups, including the duo Spiers & Boden and eleven-piece group Bellowhead. With a concentration on interpretations of traditional English folk song, Jon’s lively performances and recordings with each of these entities have attracted increasing critical acclaim. In 2003, Spiers & Boden won the BBC2 folk award for Best Duo, and in 2007 Bellowhead won the
folk award for Best Group and Best Live Act (also 2008).
Alistair Anderson: Music
Alistair Anderson has been at the forefront of the performance of traditional music for over three decades. Internationally acknowledged as the leading performer on the English Concertina, he has taken the music of Northumberland to new audiences around the world, touring extensively throughout Europe and America. As well as championing the traditional music and musicians of the area, Anderson has a growing reputation as a composer of new music rooted in the local traditions.
Tim Kerr: Music production
Tim Kerr is an artist, musician and skate-boarder who lives and works in Austin, Texas. His musical influences span soul, funk, British folk, oldtime, free jazz, punk, hardcore and acoustic music. In 1978, along with two skate friends, Kerr formed the Big Boys, one of the most influential bands of the Texas punk and early hardcore scene. He has also played in numerous other bands including the Court Reporters, Poison 13, Bad Mutha Goose, Monkeywrench, Lord High Fixers, and Total Sound Group Direct Action Committee.
Sam Lee: John Burdikin
One of the most accomplished interpreters of traditional English song, Lee founded the barn dance band Cut a Shine, and also organises the Magpie’s Nest folk club in Islington, which promotes ‘Old Folk, New Folk, No Folk’. He works for the English Folk Dance and Song Society, which is based at Cecil Sharp House in Camden.
Arthouse residency: these are the days, a two-screen film and audio installation, is being produced as part of Stokes’s residency with Arthouse, Austin’s public contemporary art gallery, in 2008/09. As a result of Stokes working closely with communities connected to the city’s large and diverse live music scene, the work explores connections and schisms between communities associated with punk/DIY music in Austin, Texas, and both the influence and abandonment of the ethos of the early punk scene in relation to current manifestations.
Matt Stokes is represented by Workplace Gallery, Gateshead
The Gainsborough Packet is co-commissioned by 176 and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and supported by Arts Council England
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