Ballen’s The Theatre of the Apparitions was initially inspired by the sight of hand-drawn carvings on blacked-out windows in an abandoned women's prison in South Africa. The artworks are photographs of drawings that the artist made on windows inside a building in Johannesburg. By inventing various techniques using materials such as spray-paints, epoxies, resins, emulsions and brushes, the artist created an otherworld in which transient, ghost-like figures perform. For Ballen, the photographs of these figures and the absurd activities in which they engage, present the unfathomable and primal scenes of our mental unconscious. In particular, The Theatre of Apparitions is a place in which dreams, imaginative scenes and primordial memory from the afterworld manifest themselves. These spirits or ghosts are imperceptible to the eye, yet they are deeply embedded in our consciousness and in our being.
The Theatre of Apparitions at Venice Biennale Arte 2022
Roger Ballen
December 1, 2022
