Press release | Amsterdam, 28 April 2011
Foam 3h: Grant Willing
Svart Metall
13 May - 29 June 2011
The Svart Metall series by Grant Willing (United States, 1987)
is the result of an investigation into the Scandinavian 'Black
Metal' subculture. This subculture, inspired by Pagan and Satanic
ideologies, was mainly associated with violence, murder and church
burnings in the 1990s - although much of this was unjustified. This
is not, however, what Willing shows us in Svart Metall; instead he
mostly depicts the shadowy, rebellious, and occult world which is
at the heart of Scandinavian Black Metal.
In his graduate work, Svart Metall, Willing focuses on the
primary themes of the Black Metal culture such as Norse mythology,
rugged nature, winter and the occult. Willing translated these
themes into a series of carefully constructed images: a knife stuck
into a cold, bare wall, a white tree against a pitch-black sky, a
dark silhouette against a light, nondescript landscape. With this
body of work, Willing has succeeded in placing the obvious
association with violence in the background and returned to the
subculture's tenebrous origin.
Grant Willing graduated from the Parsons New School for Design in
New York in 2009. He has taken part in exhibitions including The
Show Must Go On in the Capricious Gallery in Brooklyn, New York
(2011) and Self Publish, Be Happy in the Photographers' Gallery in
London (2010). Willing recently co-curated an exhibition,
Finished, in New York City and has worked on several projects with
Fjord and Humble Arts Foundation. In 2009, he published his
book Svart Metall.
The exhibition Svart Metall by Grant Willing opens Thursday, 12
May. The band WOUD will provide the opening from 6.00 pm with
music. You are welcome from 5.30 until 7.00 pm.
This exhibition was made possible with support from Van
Bijlevelt Stichting and &Samhoud.
The opening is organised in cooperation with Subbacultcha!.
Svart Metall, by Grant Willing can be seen from 13 May to 29
June 2011 at Foam. Open daily 10 am - 6 pm, Thurs/Fri 10 am - 9 pm.
Tickets: € 8,00
Note to editors: For information and visual material please
contact Communications, e-mail foam[AT]foam.org or phone +31 (0)20
5516500.
Foam is sponsored by the BankGiro Loterij, the VandenEnde
Foundation and De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek.