FRANK MARSHALL€¦ · EXHIBITION CATALOGUE The Newtown 37 Quinn Street Newtown Johannesburg T +27...

EXHIBITION CATALOGUE

The Newtown37 Quinn StreetNewtownJohannesburg

T +27 (0)72 6580 762C +27 (0)72 3835 [email protected]

FRANKMARSHALLRenegades

EXHIBITION CATALOGUE & PRICELIST



FRANKMARSHALLRenegades

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If there is a constant to chaos it is dualism; where two Manichean halves clash. The vying of the irrational against the rational makes Africa the perfect breeding ground for chaos, where conflict, war, violence, and poverty in the wake of decolonization, global capitalism, and the resurgence of pre-colonial tribalism simultaneously condemn and validate oppression. It is from this ‘tragic-state-of-affairs’ that corrupt and totalitarian powers contest for ownership over a multifaceted and layered geography. Within this paradigm small pockets across Africa are attempting to find recourse towards identifying themselves, in many ways reversing the voyeuristic gaze of the West, becoming voyeurs of the West and vanguards of their own culture, in the process finding rootedness; a story of difference, and the indifference that prevails to destroy it.

Frank Marshall is a photographer who dissects the question of representation in Africa by focusing on a special outcropping of Heavy Metal subculture in Botswana. He does so from a formal photographic stance and as a sub-

political statement, constructing an image of the Renegade as a pretense to the avant-garde. Heavy Metal is a divergent subculture, and its quasi-nihilist tenets seem to have developed into an uprising in Sub-Saharan Africa, provoking those myths and stereotypes that sustain the borders of supposed social order, dummy-revolutions, and apparent power struggles; all under the guise of victimhood in the shadow of the post-colony. What the so-called ‘Batswana’ Heavy Metal community is nurturing in Botswana is merely one of many encouraging microcosms of change sprouting all across Africa. The diverse manner in which this change is happening exhibits how the continent is calibrating itself to the demands of the Present and the obligations of the Past. With the Batswana, Marshall has taken it upon himself to document this process unfolding, one individual Motswana at a time (‘Motswana’ being the singular to the plural ‘Batswana’).

Marshall tentatively situates himself as a mediator chronicling the assimilation of Heavy Metal by a group of Batswana rebels creating an emergent rootedness in a geography where tradition, politics, and tribalism create sensitive grounds for expression. These Renegades are almost thespian in their unconscious

Introduction:

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nothing to lose, subverting the system with his anger and indignation.In terms of demographics, Heavy Metal has historically been associated with those of Caucasian, male, patriarchal, Christian (by proxy anti), and Eurocentric persuasions. The dissimilarity is obvious, but the one key similarity here is that ‘Metalheads’ stem from the lower working class, giving insight into the socio-economic strata of each Motswana, whom relates to the blue-collar working-class roots of Metal, its origins in Rock and Roll during the 1950s, and its connotations to the Hell’s Angels, all working against the system to find an original identity. This influence can be traced even further back to the machismo of the Wild West era. Africa being the ‘new’ Wild West, the Renegades parade themselves in leather boots, pants and jackets, jeans, studs, and homemade belts made from bullet shells; a material articulation of rebellion to say the least.

In this way, the Batswana have annexed unclaimed cultural territory, seizing a sense of authenticity and ownership, in turn upending the order of ‘Otherness’ by ‘colonizing’ a Western subculture. In this context, visibility equals worth, where music is a material currency, and

belonging and fellowship amongst the Batswana Heavy Metal community, geared towards a confrontation with the persuasions and dysfunctions of Globalization and Capitalism. The Batswana take advantage of the spectacle cherished in Heavy Metal lore, parodying the larger Spectacle created by the ‘powers-that-be’, turning the notion of ‘Otherness’ on its head. The Batswana become voyeurs of the old oppressor; the West becomes the fetish, a novelty in light of the outsider status of Heavy Metal in Botswana.

Marshall’s portraits of the Batswana pose important anthropological questions about the nature of cultural effigy, specifically relating to pop culture, consumerism, and the topology of post-decolonial machinations. The stigma surrounding Marshall’s Renegades in their own local community also reveals a greater cultural chimera: they are the oppressed, steeped in the tactics of the oppressor, conveying this fact through skulls, scars, and chains that ironically put them on the fringe of their own society. Despite this, the Renegades keep with Heavy Metal’s primary archetype, envisaging a ‘new’ kind of African male: damaged yet intimidating, at the end of it all, with

re-reading of post-colonial hauteur. This ‘performative’ aspect is a dominant theme in Marshall’s photographs; where the Machiavellian world of Heavy Metal meets the Manichean world of Colonialism, uniquely displayed in each individual Motswana portrait.

Such sub-cultural insurgences supply alternative lifestyles that veer from long-debated post-colonial concerns that either views subculture as a luxury of the First World or the corruption of the Third World. But such insurrections are anomalies attempting to deal with the challenges of Modernity, and the Batswana community does so through pure idiosyncratic rage in keeping with the idiom of Heavy Metal.

Increasingly, these subversive apolitical, non-traditional caucuses establish themselves unobstructed by the moral and political predicaments created by post-liberation, often corrupt leaderships in underdeveloped democracies. Although many subcultures exist in seemingly developed African states such as South Africa, this particular fraternity in Botswana is provoking a unique polarity-shift between the West and its perceived Other, allowing for a greater sense of

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performance is an unmasking agent revealing the West as a perpetrator of inauthenticity. To ‘colonize’, based on the humanist pedestal of Greco-Roman ethics, leading into Christian moralism, Eurocentric narcissism, ending in Modernist utopianism is negated by the primal, pagan, pre-Hellenistic tribalism, tolerating the Batswana to embrace a ‘cult of Dionysius’ as it were; representing the marginal folklore of Heavy Metal regardless of ethnicity, simply because it speaks the language of tragedy.

Tragedy is an intrinsic art form based on human suffering, offering pleasure to its spectators. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers mainly to the Ancient Greek dramatic traditions that play a pivotal role in the determinism of Western civilization, and by proxy Colonialism. Marshall accentuates this sense of tragedy by acquiring theatrical elements through Spectacle, temporality, and iconicity, illustrating the evolutionary strides in the post-colonial mindset from rebels, to revolutionaries, to Renegades. In this way, Marshall actively mythologizes the Batswana, teetering on the fringe of fantasy and reality, bearing witness to the manner in which Heavy Metal is

adopted and adapted in Botswana.

The historical significance of Marshall’s portraits is further emphasized by formal considerations of tone, color, and one-point perspective, using ambient picture planes, differentiated focusing and a distorted depth of field. His formal engagement with the street, and the African urban environment in particular, turns his portraits of Motswana individuals into ‘visions’, achieving a vivid painterly effect outside the confines of the artist’s studio. In this light, it seems ironic that Marshall’s cult-like visions can only be accessed through the tragic social rites of the gallery, occultist in its purist form. Marshall’s photographs are vocal about depicting a community marginalized by society, blurring the boundaries between liberty and fraternity. Marshall’s Renegade’s have found a semblance of an answer by co-opting Heavy Metal, finding a substitute for the lack of answers produced by the Post-colonial enquiry, permitting them to embrace anything that popular culture finds unacceptable, proving the manner in which Africa is calibrating itself to an increasingly homogenized world.

Words by Shane de Lange.

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PLATES

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Bonemachine (Deeplow)2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print

Available Sizes:60 x 60 cm120 x 120 cm

Mr Rock2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Cannibal2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


Phantom Lord Ishmael2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Katie2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


Gunsmoke2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Call To Arms2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


Dead Demon Rider I2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Morgue Boss (Rock Phex)2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Rock Phex2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


Maximum II2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Pantera2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


Assassin in Stealth2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Undertaker II2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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White Devil2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Roxette2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


Loyal To None2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Calvin2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Captain2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


Joster2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Siera 1 2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


Skull Beneath The Skin2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Warmaster2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Dead Skin Mask (Moses)2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Dev2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


Hardcore2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Dethguard2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Budrö2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Hardcore (Hellrider)2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Undertaker III2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


Binki2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Greedy 2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


Trooper 2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Maximum I2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


Apostle in Triumph2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Apothecary Dethrok2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


Dead Demon Rider II2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Death 2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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The Time To Kill Is Now (Trooper)2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Venerated Villian (Kenosi)2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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“It’s just a belief that I have...everything is electrified nowadays, so therefore the belief comes through electricity to the people...we’re playing for our sounds to go inside the soul of the person and see if they can awaken some kind of thing in their minds, because there’s so many sleeping people.”

Jimmi Hendrix

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Medicine Man2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


Ghost2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Sarah2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


Siera II2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Drag The Waters (Metal)2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


Lucifer (In Transition)2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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General2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


Coffinfeeder2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Maiden2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


The Duelist2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Neo Rock2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


The New Number Six (Hardcore)2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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No need for mercy with a fist full of hate (Undertaker)2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Bound By The Moon2010Edition of 8 + 2 APArchival Giclee print


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Limited edition “Renegades” signed artists book. 60 portraits including a foreword and artists statement: R1,450

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Pricing and editioning is as follows:

All images are in an edition of 8 + 2 Artist Proofs.

Prices increase by editionand size accordingly:

60 x 60 cm

1/8 R3,5002/8 R4,5003/8 R5,5004/8 R6,5005/8 R7,5006/8 R8,5007/8 Reserved8/8 ReservedFraming R1,050

120cm x 120cm Add R1,800 to the above price stipulations per edition number. Framing R3,500

Limited edition “Renegades” signed artists book: 60 portraits including a foreword and artists statementR1,450.

(All pricing ex Vat)

Notes

Written and designed by Shane de Lange: [email protected]

EXHIBITION CATALOGUE & PRICELIST



FRANK MARSHALL€¦ · EXHIBITION CATALOGUE The Newtown 37 Quinn Street Newtown Johannesburg T +27...

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