New RENDER exhibition

[Andrew Hunter]

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

http://render.uwaterloo.ca/

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.




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