Born and raised an only child in Topeka, KS I was forced to find ways to entertain myself to combat my extreme boredom. After taking an interest in the guitar, I quickly found myself engrossed in the underground world of extreme metal. After about a decade of fully dedicating myself in the local extreme metal scene, I found that this close-knit clique full of strong minded, passionate, and overly aggressive party animals was home. Years later my friends and I were able to tour internationally with our own separate acts that all spawned from Topeka. After years of social experiences with these friends, and bands met along the way I began to notice that we all shared the characteristic of a strong and secure persona. Yet at the same time, we revealed some of our most personal problems to each other throughout our friendships.
My work aims to explore vulnerability in a culture that necessitates increasingly strong personal barriers. Recently, I have become fascinated with researching what might be considered the most extreme and sinister genre of extreme metal coined “Black Metal” based out of Norway. These armor-draped, corpse-painted, Satan-worshiping characters created within these isolated towns I believe is a perfect example of a trait that I observe so frequently in both this music scene and within human culture; that our personal barriers should be protective and permeable like skin. By constructing skin-like, transparent armor influenced from the imagery of these Black Metal personas, I wish to address our need as a society to simultaneously protect and reveal ourselves.
Scott McPherson
Lawrence
66044
Topeka
Kansas
North America
