Roger Ballen in Johannesburg exhibition
Come and experience the thought-provoking work of Roger Ballen. Only at the Standard Bank Art Gallery.
Over a 40-year career, Roger Ballen – who was born in New York but has spent the last few decades living in South Africa, has transformed from small town geologist to one of the most important photographic artists of the 21st century. With a body of work ranging from social critique to metaphors for the inner mind, he delivers powerful psychodramas that inspire provocative reactions from all who view his work.
This exhibition centers on Ballen’s relationship with Johannesburg.
He began his Outland project in 1995 in Johannesburg. This was a seminal project of his career which created the basis for his distinctive style, which involved using a simple square format in stark and beautiful black and white. In earlier works in the exhibition his connection to the tradition of documentary photography is clear. But from the 1990s he developed a style he describes as ‘documentary fiction’.
After 2000 the people he first discovered and documented living on the margins of South African society, increasingly became a cast of actors working with Ballen in the series Outland and Shadow Chamber (2005).
The line between fantasy and reality in his subsequent series, Boarding House (2009) and Asylum of the Birds (2014), became increasingly blurred. In these series, he applied drawings, painting, collage and sculptural techniques to create elaborate sets. By integrating drawing into his photographic and video works, Ballen has not only made a lasting contribution to the field of art, but has made a powerful commentary on the human condition and its creative potential.
Roger Ballen in Johannesburg is therefore a place of the mind. It is a transformed reality, linking his state of mind, through photography, with the physical world.
Standard Bank Art Gallery
Fredderick Street
Marshalltown
Johannesburg, 2001
Gauteng, South Africa
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