Into the rhythym of a gallery rave-up

The lost musical subcultures of the 1980s and earlier is archived, interpreted and celebrated in a new show, which opened at …

The lost musical subcultures of the 1980s and earlier is archived, interpreted and celebrated in a new show, which opened at the Temple Bar Gallery and Studios this week.

Some of the work in Lost in the Rhythm "relates to acid house and rave music", explained the British artist, Matt Stokes, the recipient of the Beck's Futures Award in 2006, whose first exhibition in Ireland this is.

In one room of the gallery, the artist's film, Long After Midnight, chronicles and recreates those magical nights of dancing when Northern Soul was all the rage in parts of Britain in the 1970s.

"In certain countries, youth cultures are taking it up again," Stokes explained. "It's an incredibly beautiful, moving film," said his partner, artist Catherine Bertola.

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His work, Stokes explained, aims "to push the perception of rave culture . . . to probe the real impact of its lost ideals on the survivors". Stokes, who is based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, said he is interested in "how social events and informal movements bind people together".

"Music was our religion," recalled Noel Kelly, curator of the gallery, as he looked around at the various elements of the show. "This is my youth. We had to show it in Dublin. He's documenting what we were doing."

Among those at the opening were opera singer and writer Judith Mok and her husband, Michael O'Loughlin, Galway's writer-in-residence; artist Oisín Breatnach; Marco Lombardi, consul at the Italian embassy; and artist Linda Quinlan, who is off to Tasmania tomorrow to take part in a residency programme there and in a group exhibition in Hobart.

Lost in the Rhythm, by Matt Stokes, continues at the Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Temple Bar, Dublin 2, until Sat, Feb 24