Sweet Harmony: Rave Today

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Sweet Harmony: Rave Today was an exhibition running in the Saatchi Gallery in July to September in 2019, the exhibition was presenting rave culture through the lenses of people who experienced it. 


“The exhibition, opening 12 July 2019, will recapture the new world that emerged from the acid house scene and narrates the ascendancy of rave culture with the youth of today.”


The exhibition featured installations of various media including audio and visual works. The show had live music, photo stories, talks and discussions of the movements artefacts and typographic accounts. “By reliving the revolution through the voices and lenses of those who experienced it, Sweet Harmony will portray the new world that emerged from the club scene of the 80s and 90s”  


Some of the photographers involved in the show include Tom Hunter, Dave Swindells, Mattko, Seana Gavin and Vinca Peterson.


Source: https://www.saatchigallery.com/art/sweet_harmony.php


I have been watching videos from the gallery to get a sense of what kind of work was being shown, to gain an idea of the experience, I wish I had known about this exhibition as I definitely would have attended. There is a lot of beautiful work and some of the photographers are very inspirational to me including Seana Gavin as she has created a book which combines 10 years of her experiences within the rave scene with all sorts of artefacts she collected such as leaflets and flyers, I am considering using other material in the book I create  and this has given me the idea to ask friends and family if they have saved any of these kinds of material. Last year I wrote my essay about Tom Hunter who is involved in this show and I love his work and I can relate to some of the experiences and the stories he writes about within his projects. Matthew Smith is definitely a photographer who I take inspiration from, I have been in contact with him and I am hoping to talk to him about his work in the past, I feel I will definitely be mentioning a few of these photographers in my dissertation. 


https://youtu.be/6QTGP9-877Y


I found a very interesting video about the gallery which showed some of the beautiful work that was on display, some of the photos were absolutely incredible. It was useful for me to see some of the work being displayed and how it was mounted to the wall as I can take inspiration from this if I am to ever display my own work in an exhibition. 


I wrote a quote down which I found interesting to hear from one of the videos, it was named: BEHIND THE SCENES AT 'SWEET HARMONY: RAVE TODAY' EXHIBITION, AN IMMERSIVE AND RETROSPECTIVE LOOK AT RAVE CULTURE: the person speaking was Adrian Fisk, he stated:


"There is lots of parallels between what is happening now and what happened twenty five years ago and even 30 years ago, um with extinction rebellion and also just the state of the society, you know rave was, came about as the reaction to Thatchers government, you know you had the whole thing Thatcher said, theres no such thing as society but actually there was and people stood for that and they created there society on the dance floor and in the fields and also rave came about because, we the British are very repressed and it was an opportunity for us to really let go, start hugging each other on the dance floor and whats your name, where you from and all that kind of thing and that had never really happened before."


It is interesting to hear peoples opinions of why the raves began back then, most people all state the same things, a way of release and a way to let go, it feels good to hear other peoples perspectives and why they went as I feel I can relate, people talking about when they attended raves always seem quite liberated.


Source: https://youtu.be/gdF0PlJF8YE








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