![]() ![]() He accepts them for who they are and works with them to create these challenging art works.Īpparently these photographs, “have a singular ability to cause disquiet to the viewer.” Personally, they have never caused me disquiet for I find them quite fascinating. The empathy that these photographs and videos evidence, the interchangeable director/actor roles, and the connection that he has with his subject matter gives insight into the compassion of this man. He never judges anyone. One is forced to wonder whether they are exploited victims, colluding directly in their own ridicule, or newly empowered and active participants within the drama of their representation.” From the videos included in this posting, it is obvious that the latter statement is the correct interpretation. Through this thematic development, the viewer may come to understand the nature of the artist’s collaboration with the people, places and things that he photographs. ![]() Ballen’s characters act out dark and discomfiting tableaux, providing images which are exciting and disturbing in equal measure. As the text on the Outland web page on Roger Ballen’s website states, “Where previously his pictures, however troubling, fell firmly into the category of documentary photography, these pictures move into the realms of fiction. The move from documentary photographer to director / collaborator / actor / observer was critical to the development of Ballen’s art. ![]() From his early documentary series Dorps (1986) and Platteland (1996) which featured alienated and poverty poverty stricken whites in South Africa struggling with their place in the world after Apartheid through my favourite series Outland (2001), Shadow Chamber (2005) and Boarding House (2009) which portrayed down and out whites on the fringe of South African society in a surrealist, performative art to the more recent Animal Abstraction (2011), I Fink U Freeky (2013) and Asylum of the Birds (2014) … through each of these series you can trace the development of this preternatural artist, whose work seems to exist almost beyond nature itself. Taken as a whole, the artist Roger Ballen’s body of work is exceptionally strong. Image courtesy of the artist and Stills Gallery Roger Ballen (South African born America, b. Tags: archetypal figures, archetypes, Art Brut, Asylum of the Birds, Bewitched, Cat and Mouse, collaborative art, Deathbed, desires, Die Antwoord, Die Antwoord I Fink U Freeky, dissolving the divide between surface and depth, dreams, Freud the Id, Gaston Bachelard, Gaston Bachelard The Poetics of Space, Giuliana Bruno, Giuliana Bruno enveloping phenomenon, Giuliana Bruno surface in modern visual culture, Head inside shirt, I Fink U Freeky, Krishnamurti, Krishnamurti awareness, Lunchtime, marginal art, marginalised in society, Mirrored, moving image as enveloping phenomenon, nightmares, Outland, Outsider art, performance art, performance photography, Portrait of sleeping girl, psychological art, Roger Ballen, Roger Ballen Asylum of the Birds, Roger Ballen Bewitched, Roger Ballen Caged, Roger Ballen Cat and Mouse, Roger Ballen Deathbed, Roger Ballen Head inside shirt, Roger Ballen Lunchtime, Roger Ballen Mirrored, Roger Ballen Outland, Roger Ballen Portrait of sleeping girl, Roger Ballen School Room, Roger Ballen Take off, Roger Ballen Three hands, Roger Ballen Twirling Wires, Roger Ballen Untitled, Roger Ballen's Theatre of the Mind, Rozelle Psychiatric Hospital, SCA Galleries, SCA Galleries Roger Ballen, School Room, South African art, South African artist, South African photography, subconscious, surreal performance art, surreal photography, Take off, the fabrication of the surface in modern visual culture, the poetics of space, Theatre of the Mind, theatrical art, theatrical photography, Three hands, Twirling Wires, urban landscape, wearing of imagesĮxhibition dates: 16th March – 7th May 2016 Categories: African photography, beauty, black and white photography, documentary photography, drawing, exhibition, existence, gallery website, intimacy, light, memory, photographic series, photography, portrait, psychological, quotation, reality, sculpture, space, surrealism, time, video and works on paper
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