In 2018 GRAIN produced and co-curated Noises by Lua Ribeira at Argentea Art Gallery, Birmingham.

Photographer Lua Ribeira made Noises with British Jamaican women from Birmingham over a number of years, collaborating with them on the representation of contemporary Jamaican dancehall ritual.  Ribeira recreated scenes from dancehall culture at the participants’ homes, embracing the impossibility of fully understanding this cultural expression so very different from her own, Ribeira playfully dissects the ideas of femininity and sexuality within the performances.   Ribeira does not intend the images to comment on the Dancehall, but to become the ritual itself. The power of the transformations of the women and the innovation and provocation that they engage, often clash with Western ideas of femininity. ‘Mythological powers, the concept of female divinity and sacredness in Afro-Caribbean culture, were very present, fed by their folklore, universal subjects such as birth, love, death and sex are central to the encounters.’ – Lúa Riberia

The title is borrowed from author Dr Carolyn Cooper’s book ‘Noises in the Blood: Orality, Gender, and the”Vulgar” Body of Jamaican Popular Culture’..

Recipient of many international photography awards and now a Magnum Photos full member, Lua has continued to make work about ritural and expression.

For the exhibition a new piece of writing was commissioned by writer, curator and photographer Colin Pantall ‘Lose the Noise and you Lose the Meaning’