The Annuale 09

What to expect of the Embassy-run art festival as it turns six this month? A super reliable internet source profiles the developmental milestones of a six-year-old as such: they will be moving in time to music or a beat; turning towards reason and abstract thinking; fine motor skills will be sharpened, and whilst they will be growing generally more independent, they will be feeling less secure. Considering that insecurity is a vice fashioned only for those with something to lose, all in all, the emergents’ festival is looking promising. Coordinated, ambitious, and true to profile, the committee have selected a familiar, yet impressive cast of artists and curators. What’s more, Annuale has shimmied forward in the calendar year, undercutting the teeming August crowd with its wave of nonchalant part-timers, a touching act of devotion that demarks locality as a key concern.

Landscape has forever played a crucial part in this annual grassroots affair. From guerilla outdoor projections to stairwell happenings, artist initiatives have infiltrated gardens, passageways, shops, office blocks and the occasional permanent venue. In the spirit of the Annuale itself, standout exhibition Heavy Metal Mouth, a Hyperground and Polarcap co-curated group show, programmed to take place in an empty office space, plays in part with a community culture specific to its national locale. Each artist will in some way examine the relationship between heavy metal culture and fine art. Hyperground curator and participating artist Alexa Hare explains, "We’re not talking Spinal Tap, but black metal, like the band Mayhem. We’re interested in the relationship landscape has to the music. Black metal fits its landscape, and it's easy to understand how satanic metal can only be made in particular environments, like Norway or Scotland’s central belt."

Participating artist Norman Shaw’s accompanying text piece adds, "Heavy metal culture represents an attitude which is not generally connected with fine art. Yet from cock-rock to black metal, it is an extremely nuanced, contradictory, and complex organism." He continues, "It is a kind of anti-art with a unique identity: misanthropic, tasteless and belligerent."

With practises well versed in such thematics, artists Neil Clements and Duncan Marquiss will exhibit alongside Malcy Duff, Ben Fallon, Sacha Kahir, Masahiro Kawanaka, Rachel Mclean, Emily Ritchie, Eddie Summerton and Andy Wake. Sound, video and wall works will fill 2,000 square feet in a space akin to a level of the old Venue. "When you go to the exhibition, I want it to feel like you’re going out", enthuses Hare. "The whole show is going to have a club feel, and we’ll have bands at the opening".

Considering its scale, perhaps the most striking aspect of this planned exhibition is that it in no way feels contrived or forced. There is something incredible in its ease of connectivity; the group has evidently tapped an exceedingly rich cultural source. It is genuine musical interests and shared experiences that drive the selection explains Hare: "We’re also interested in the relationships between black metal and other forms of music, like minimal techno, free jazz and some psychedelic music." Exemplary of the importance of artist-run initiatives in unearthing and perpetuating community culture, Heavy Metal Mouth sounds genuinely fun, and just a little raw. As Shaw so eloquently suggests, "These artists draw new metal ores from distorted rock".