Roger Ballen Sees in Color for the First Time
With this series, the interpretation of Ballenesque is reborn. Still, his still-life imagery leans on composition, texture, shadows, forms, and timing. The ethos is left unrendered, and the implementation of color only adds to its emotional depth. Colors carry moods, invoke sentiments, trigger memories. While the muted palette could easily be imagined in black and white, doing so would contradict the necessary aesthetic and the function it plays in the setting. Color adds another dimension for the viewer to analyze.
Ballen's mission to explore the inner psyche - both the human condition and the recesses of his own mind - that remains so foreign ironically is absent of people, instead relying on dolls, dummy parts, and drawings. The series was produced in a claustrophobic space with meager lighting and worn wooden wallpaper to create an oppressive scene where humanity is reduced to obscure figures and fragmented body parts, resembling an abstract recollection of memory. The bizarre world captured in color is inexplicable, like a strange dream you can't describe yet leaves you feeling impacted for the rest of the day. Spirits and spaces spurs reflection on the connection between absurdity, chaos, childhood, libido, comedy, tragedy, and animalistic nature - the core elements of the human lifespan and subconscious tied to it.
