Roger Ballen
custom frame and museum quality glass
frame size 75.6 x 60 cm
Separated into seven chapters or "acts", The Theatre of Apparitions is a treat of Ballenesque images taking readers on a deep journey into their subconscious.
Inspired by the sight of hand-drawn carvings on blacked-out windows in an abandoned women's prison, Ballen started to experiment using different spray paints on glass and then 'drawing on' or removing the paint with a sharp object to let natural light through.
The results are like prehistoric cave-paintings: the black, dimensionless spaces on the glass are canvases onto which Ballen carves his thoughts and emotions. Fossil-like facial forms and dismembered body parts coexist uncomfortably with vaporous, ghost-like shadows.
Earthly and otherworldly, physical and spiritual, his work transcends all traditional concepts of photography.