Prelude to Cantata Profana: Paroxysm’s rehearsal room, Kassel

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

This photographic print captures the rehearsal studio of a death metal band from Quebec called Paroxysm (active 1996–2016) in Kassel, Germany. Matt Stokes met the band while preparing his solo show No Place Else Better Than Here at Kunsthalle Fridericianum (2011). The exhibition explored the lasting effect of underground music as a counter-culture to the mainstream and its ability to spawn scenes which greatly influence people’s opinions and lifestyles, issues which run through Stokes' entire oeuvre.

The outcome of this musical encounter was an audio installation and 6-channel video filmed in a former GDR studio in Berlin. This was made in collaboration with international heavy metal vocalists to a score led by choral work developed with a classically-trained composer. This work was later exhibited at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, in 2011.

Born in Penzance, Matt Stokes has lived in the north-east of England since 1993. His practice stems from a long-term inquiry into subcultures, particularly musical ones. After a process of collecting source materials, Stokes produces artworks that depart from his research and take on a conceptual and aesthetic life of their own, through films, installations and events. In 2006, he was the winner of the Beck's Futures Prize, and in 2009 was shortlisted for the Northern Art Prize. Selected solo exhibitions include 'Energy Flash – The Rave Movement', M HKA, Antwerp, Belgium (2016); 'Objects To See Further: In Focus', The Mining Institute, Newcastle Upon Tyne (2015); 'Give to me the Life I Love', Whitechapel Gallery, London (2012); and 'Nuestro tiempo (Our Time)', Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC), Seville, Spain (2011).

Places

Subjects

musical instruments, guitar, stage, ashtray, broom, bottle, drum kit, electric guitar, amplifier, beer bottle, electric storage heater, chair, table (as Subject)

Materials & Techniques

print (as object name), digital print, lightjet print

Artist

Matt Stokes (1973 - )

Title

Prelude to Cantata Profana: Paroxysm’s rehearsal room, Kassel

Edition

One of an edition of 5 (number unknown), plus 1 artist's proof

Date

2010

Medium

digital print

Dimensions

height: 120.5 cm; width: 171.9 cm; depth: 3.5 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from the artist March 2021, through the Art XUK project 2020-21

Provenance

Workplace Gallery; from whom purchased by UK Government Art Collection, 22 March 2021

GAC number

18925