ISMMS 2023 WORKSHOP: Rainbow Corpsepaint

Black metal has a long history defined by black and white aesthetics, but the times they are a-changin’. “Rainbow Corpsepaint” is an interactive session that re-imagines corpsepaint for a new era of pluralistic and diverse black metal. Watch, as the spectrum of colors contained with the black is liberated and expressed upon the canvas of the human face in new and unexpected ways.

This workshop will engage participants in a process of re-thinking, queering, remixing, reconfiguring what corpsepaint can do. Utilizing a mix of images, sound and interactive participation, including the opportunity to paint your own faces with provided face paints, “Rainbow Corpsepaint” will bring together artists, musicians, scholars, fans, in a moment of critical reflection and active re-evaluation of the classic black metal practice of corpsepaint design and application.

The session will explore what playfulness and experimentation with colors in the context of black metal corpsepaint can tell us about contemporary cultural politics, and examine terrains of crossover between corpsepaint and clown culture, black metal, drag and the carnivalesque, plus other historical and cultural forms of face painting. We will also be announcing and celebrating the winners of the Rainbow Corpsepaint online competition. Come along and let’s get messy together!!

Presenter Bios

Daniel Lukes is communications officer in the McGill Bieler School of Environment, and course lecturer in the McGill Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. He has a PhD in Comparative Literature from New York University, has written for metal and rock magazines Terrorizer, Kerrang!, Decibel, and Helvete: A Journal of Black Metal Theory, and is the coeditor of Black Metal Rainbows (PM Press, 2023).

Stanimir Panayotov is assistant professor in Philosophy at School of Advanced Studies, University of Tyumen, Russia, and holds a PhD in Comparative Gender Studies from Central European University, Budapest. He works at the intersections of continental and feminist philosophy, non-philosophy, and late antique philosophy and has published in Heathen Harvest, Metal Music Studies, the Minnesota Review, Aspasia, etc. He is the editorial manager of Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture, and coeditor of Black Metal Rainbows (PM Press, 2023).

Jaci Raia is an all-black-wearing art director currently living and working in New York City. She works in advertising, and uses her free time to take on a variety of both freelance and personal projects to fulfill herself creatively. After design and typography, metal music is her second love, and she spends a lot of time seeing shows in town and collecting records, tapes, and band shirts, much to the detriment of her wallet. She is the designer of Black Metal Rainbows (PM Press, 2023).

Find out more about the ISMSS 2023 conference: No Outsides: Metal in an Era of Contagion.