The Church of Noise was born earlier this year, over a coffee with Ruth Cayford from Cardiff Council (and the driving force behind Cardiff Music City festival). I was talking about the inspiring time I’d had as artist in residence at The 309 Punk Project in Pensacola, Florida – a month spent living and working within a supportive and welcoming subcultural community, who now feel like family. In part I was explaining to Ruth what a punk house is as we really have no direct equivalent in the UK, when she said, “Well, why don’t we try and bring the essence of that here for the music festival?”
The name for the project came from a visit to an old chapel that we were going to use – a chapel which then caught fire, with us in it, whilst on a final site visit to get health and safety clearance. (Was it the fact I’d just booked a Black Metal band to play a midnight show? We’ll never know…) So, the programme moved to ArtHole – an artist led space and community in the city who couldn’t have been a more perfect host for what we were trying to do.
When it came to programming the week, I really did try and channel my experience of living at The 309 – talks, screenings, gigs, art, vegan chilli, and most importantly, community. Could it be possible to build a week of events that were bigger than the sum of their parts, in terms of what they discussed, represented, and the community they could bring together? It turns out it IS possible.
From day one, Julia was always part of this – before she even knew it herself. I’d never had the pleasure of meeting her in-person, but we’d shared various messages online due to our mutual connection of The 309. A project inspired by my time there wouldn’t have felt right had it not also had Julia’s involvement. It was an absolute joy to watch her work. The ease she puts people at whilst taking their photos – often people (like myself) who feel so ill at ease with how the camera usually captures them. And now this incredible document exists, forever, of our community that passed through the project that week.
A community that now also includes Julia.
S Mark Gubb, curator of The Church of Noise
INDIVIDUAL PHOTOS WILL BE POSTED EARLY IN NOVEMBER, I STILL HAVE JET LAG!