Deaderer: an exhibition at RENDER/University of Waterloo Art Gallery

[RENDER events]

David Poolman & Roman Tkaczyk: DEADERER
RENDER @ University of Waterloo, East Campus Hall
February 26th through March 20th, 2008
Closing event/concert: March 20th, 7-10pm

DEADERER presents collaborative works by Toronto-based artists David
Poolman and Roman Tkaczyk that reference extreme forms of youth
rebellion and symbolic violence with a particular emphasis on Death
Metal culture. Working collaboratively, Poolman and Tkaczyk have
executed a series of large format wall paintings and a photographic
frieze of screen grab images. The wall paintings combine Tkaczyk's
explosion drawings (cars, figures, architecture) with fragments of
cryptic text reminiscent of the doodled marginalia of high school
boredom and rebellion. Metalheads & Pitbulls, the screen grab frieze,
presents images culled from amateur band websites featuring basement
performances complemented by the antics of pitbulls, the genres pet of
choice.

Part of an ongoing series of projects inspired by forms of
contemporary music (including Chris Down's Death to Everyone presented
in 2007) DEADERER takes its inspiration from the once obscure now more
mainstream genre known as "Death Metal." Developed in the suburbs of
California and Florida, and eventually exported throughout Europe and
Asia, the Death Metal scene began to take shape in the early 1990s.
Unlike other genres of extreme music that preceded it  (Punk,
Hardcore, Speed Metal, and Noise) this scene sought to overthrow
Christian ideology through the invocation and promotion of Satanic
imagery, Norse mythology, Fascist dogma, and destructive acts of
intimidation and violence. Death Metal has become hugely popular with
disenfranchised suburban youth throughout the Western world.  Its
attraction is its ideological dissent from and destruction of the
Status Quo, its embracement of 'otherness", and its utter rejection of
all music and thought that came before it. DEADERER is an absurdly
elegant engagement with this music, youth violence, rebellion, and
intimidation.

In addition to the collaborative works, the exhibition also includes
two video works by Poolman, 13 Instances and The Burning of the Nauvoo
Temple (after Carl Christensen). 13 Instances is based on the artist's
engagement with a specific Death Metal community in Iowa. Like many of
Poolman's video works, there is a strong narrative thread weaving
together seemingly disjunctive fragments of voice and image. The
Burning of the Nauvoo Temple video is based on the photographs of Varg
Vikernes. In 1992 Varg Vikernes of the Black Metal group Burzum set
fire to the Fantoft Stave Church in Bergen Norway. Vikernes documented
his fires and used these photographs for the promotion of his band and
as a tool to instigate others to follow in his footsteps.  This
triggered a spree of vandalism and arsons across Norway, Europe, and
North America.  Poolman's video features animations by Jeremy Price
and a soundtrack by guitarist Matt Killen.

DEADERER will close with a performance by FightWithBears, a five piece
hardcore band from Georgetown, Ontario. Scheduled for the evening of
March 20th, the performance will be recorded and made available as a
live EP produced by Poolman and Tkaczyk and released by RENDER as part
of the DEADERER publication.

For more information please visit www.render.uwaterloo.ca or contact:

Andrew Hunter
Director/Curator
RENDER
519-888-4567 ext. 33575
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