Roger Ballen’s photographs move between the real and the imaginary. Within his black and white photographic work, we see the mix of animals and humans, cleanliness and filth, the living and the dead, what is real and what is imagined. Despite the fact that most of his work (especially from 1970 until the 1990s) continues along the lines of documentary photography, his works have a psychological atmosphere of unreality that sets them apart. Ballen transforms and mixes social questions with their own internal affairs blurring the borders between photojournalistic imagery and other arts like painting and sculpture.
For this first individual exhibit in La Fábrica Gallery, Roger Ballen is showing part of his latest project entitled “Asylum of the Birds.” This is a group of images taken between 2008 and 2013 inside a house in the suburbs of Johannesburg, whose location remains a secret. The inhabitants of the house, people and animals and especially birds, are the main characters of these images. The coexistence generates certain erratic behaviors, triggered by an unfathomable loss of self-awareness. Their movements are trapped by Ballen’s gaze, achieving masterful and choreographed compositions of timeless, powerful sculptural and psychological presences. The term “Asylum” evokes not only the madness of confinement, but also a place of refuge.
This is a latest series in the author’s career path. It represents a progression in the enriching combination of multiple layers of disciplines such as drawing, performance and painting contained in the photographs themselves. They are also works that delve into the breakdown of the relationship between photographer and author, which can be seen via the care taken with the composition, texture, shape and depth.
Asylum of the Birds has been shown in multiple museums and cultural institutions in different places around the world in 2014. Now La Fábrica has the chance to show part of it in its commercial gallery space. The photographic exhibition is completed with a video of the same title created by the author.
Roger Ballen (New York, 1950) is one of the best-known contemporary photographers of today. In 1972 he received a degree in Psychology from the University of Berkeley and completed his doctorate in Mineral Economics in 1982. That same year he moved to Johannesburg, where he currently lives and works. His first book of photography, created during his adolescence, was published at the end of 1970, followed by Dorps in 1986, Platteland in 1994 and Outland in 2001, followed by Shadow Chamber 2005, and Boarding house. His most recent series, The Asylum of the Birds, was published by Thames & Hudson in March 2014. Among his many awards, we should note the Rencontres d´Arles in 2002 and the Art Directors Club Award in 2006. His video I Fink U Freeky won best video in the Portuguese festival Corto Vila do Conde Festival Internacional de Cine in 2012. His book Outland won the book of the year at PhotoEspaña in 2001. Roger Ballen’s work can be found in several of the most important contemporary art collections in the world, including the Tate Britain Collection, London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie of Paris.
