RAVE ARCHIVE
Solo exhibit - created, planned and organised myself
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Rave Archive was a solo exhibit located at the the salutation pub curated by myself, One evening made up of a 14 minute screening and a mini solo exhibit with a mini Dj set included . My intention was to project to the audience everything rave culture, the history, the memories, the forgotten elements and putting them in a professional yet relaxed experience showing past and present of the culture even sharing my own personal stories and parts of my life today which is surrounded by rave culture.
- Audience watching Rave archive screening
- Seating set up of the screening facing the projector
- Mixed Screenprint archive (2025) installation using images from my photography archive onto neon card.
- My Housemate Joe performing on the decks after the screening
- Set of 3 A3 photography prints, 2025
- A1 photography print , 2025
- Myself on the decks in one of my rave memorabilia shirts I made.
Planning and Organising
Emails of myself contacting the salutation manager, enquiring about an initial idea of a screening of 3 pieces of work as they have done screenings in the past. The original plan was to book a theatre in the SODA building but that plan fell through. Luckily due to Seeing a few student ran exhibits at the salutation in the past I contacted.
VIEWING THE SPACE
I drew a rough sketch layout of the space when I visited the salutation. It was an upstairs 1st floor base, with windows and seating. I was shown a pull out screen which also a projector was provided by the venue. Orignally my plan was to have a 15 minute screening but after viewing the full space I had the an idea of creating a solo exhibit to extend the theme of rave archive.
Notes that i took confirming with Dermot (Manager) the screening, time, time of screening, date and the planned event. Notes on what else I could include to creatively make the exhibit an experience. Questioning, would i include a dj? to add that nightlife perspective and atmosphere. Would it be my housemate? would I dj? Would it be a complete Black out screening or would there be some light? All sorts of questions which I would be answering within my exhibit. The biggest decision was going to be how my video piece would be laid out, as seperate screenings? or as a whole experience?
PREPARING MY WORK
RAVE ARCHIVE FLYER:
Rough test designs in my journal: Using my own photogrpahy and oil pastel. On my second test I tried to add in mark making inspired by my own abstract mark making pieces
Using photoshop to create my flyer design, imagery is used from one of my abstract mark making pieces. The design is influenced by different flyer designs ive collected and my 80s and 90s rave flyer research. I intended to make a flyer which expresses the same colourful, vibrant and futuristic values as flyers did in the past to pay homage.
Alongside of using my design as the digital flyer I used vistaprint to create physical memorabilia for the public to take and to pay homage to being handed out flyers after raves.
SCREENPRINT PREP
Using photoshop to create my screenprint designs using my own photography the imagery.
Booking myself in for screenprinting and printing my designs on green, pink, yellow, orange and red neon card to link with the colour theme of raves and rave culture, neon, bright and energetic.
MEMEBERSHIP CARD PREP
Following up with an idea I had in first year, I wanted to create a memebership card/ VIP card for people to take away at an event as a memento just like it used to happen back in the day. Using one of my own screenprint designs, I bulk printed off 30 pieces and sign them on the back with the date of the back as a memory.
T-SHIRTS PREP
Inspired by the MDMA archive of shirts, I decided to recreate my own shirt designs by ordering oversized white shirts and spray paint. Showcasing symbolism from the 'smiley face' and how that was a community beacon for ravers in the 80s and how it was printed onto shirts and badges, I also tried mark making designs influenced by my own mark making pieces. I had a very fun time with this experiment and I could see the similarities between my shirts and the 80s style. I planned to wear a shirt on the exhibit.
PHOTOGRAPHY PRINTS PREP -
To create my photography prints I used the wide format printer, my first time ever printing images on a large scale, I created a range of prints from A0 to A3. I was excited to work with ranges of scale and how I would set them out on the walls.
VIDEO PREP -
My video prep was ongoing before my screening. *my plan is in the rave archive 'remastered' section.* I wanted to use this piece as a tester to see how the audience reacted and to develop it from there towards the degree show.
PAT TESTING DECKS AND SPEAKER -
The saluation have rules on bringing in your own equipment, it has to PAT tested so I was able luckily able to use the university facilities, the gallery tech team. I contacted Jim and he was able to test the equipment and the equipment passed perfectly within just a few hours. That was just in time for my exhibit.
SETTING UP WORK-
It was a bit of a stressful set up only having 3 hours to install everything and one one set of hands, luckily my coursemate melissa helped me with setting up my work which was a relief. The salutation also had a projector already in the room for screenings so I didnt need to hire one out.
- Installing my mark making pieces and photo prints.
Research & Influences
Sweet harmony - Saatchi Gallery
Researching into rave themed exhibits I came across the sweet harmony : today exhibit from 2019 which showcased many artists including pioneers and different types of art work around the theme of rave culture and artwork which has influences from rave culture elements i.e symbolism and the music. Looking at the range artists from the exhibit it made me intrigued on how I could showcase a range of different works within my exhibit.
Sweet Harmony - Renevous project
Another exhibit, I looked into was also called Sweet Harmony. It celebrates a lineage and history of Walthams rave history. It contained audio archives from some of the biggest names in the rave scene from the early years, I wondered what the stories that the djs had about waltham rave culture.
Design Museum, London - Dance Music Culture Exhibit
Highlighting a Guardian review: Reading the review it expresses how much the exhibit communicates themes of history, history of dance music and the culture of raves. From chicago house to the UK acid house scene. I was intrigued of how they chose to feature music by pioneers such as Kraftwerk who revolutionised electronic music and paying homage and by adding the music I can visualise how immersive the experience would be. I enjoyed how overall the exhibit is payed homage to the sub cultures. I was inspired by reading into this exhibit and the elements are what I wanted to include within my exhibit.
Manchester Digital Music Archive - T-Shirts & Membership Cards
I found an archive page of Manchester rave and clubbing memorabillia. I was drawn to the old rave shirts and garnments. I wondered how I could showcase that within my exhibit to extend that theme of archive, would i collect my own or other rave shirts or do i pay homage by creating my own.
Other memorabillia I came across, VIP and membership cards from the 90s. I was drawn to the membership cards because of the sentimental value and as an item it reflects dedication to the culture. They show how something small can hold so much memory. In the screenshot, the age and overuse can be visually seen. This element is what I wanted to include within my exhibit, Questioning, should they be handed out to guests as mementos? would they be fresh or do I intentionally age them?
PEZ - 80S & 90S rave flyer artist
Researching into rave flyers I came across PEZ a pioneer artist in the rave scene whos known for his flyer designs. His designs communicate themes of futuristic aesthetics, robotics, otherworldly objects and dreamlike settings. His work reflects the retro aesthetics of the 80s while also making it look like the future and which is what raves seemed like to the public. I wanted to take that futuristic element and bring it to my own flyer design to continue that legacy and using my own work towards that is a great developement. He wanted the audience to see something which would captivate them even on a small piece of paper and have that communicated and passed onto other people.
He used the drug culture aspect of raving to his advantage, he knew his futuristic imagery would capture attentions and make a raver focus on it and show others.
RAVE ART - CHELSEA LOUISE BERLIN
I also had a look at Chelsea Louise Berlins book which contains a whole chronological archive of rave flyers and membership card dated from the late 80s to the 90s through the acid house and hardcore genres.
Reflection
Overall I enjoyed making my own exhibit, it definitely taught me how to time manage, organise, gave me a sense of professionalism but also I had fun with it, I was able to curate a rave culture themed, something which I wanted to do in the future. In an honest opinion I think it was very difficult to do alone, I did have helping hands set up but all of the prep was done by myself, I took the solo title quite literally but It was worth it to see it all come together on the night. I had a lot of good feedback from family and coursemates about exhibit as a whole and my screening. After seeing the audiences reaction to my screening and I had a few quotes ' I felt like I learnt something from that' that was exactly what I wanted from the audience to come in open minded and leave with feelings of enjoyment seeing something positive but also the memories of rave culture and how it has impacted people. I wanted to take the reaction to my screening and bring it to the degree show but on a bigger scale, hopefully giving the public the exact same experience.