Roger Ballen’s newest monograph, Asylum of the Birds (Thames & Hudson) is a revelation, a vision of the inside of the mind in black and white—and all shades in between. There is a sense that nothing ever begins or ends, but rather is part of a continuum where space and time are no longer anchors in the world. Instead we simply are. We drift in and out, never knowing exactly where we are. Were it not for the flap copy that indicated the photographs were taken in a house in a suburb of Johannesburg… Well, what does that even mean? Are we in that house, or in an altered space?
It’s not at all clear. We search for the anchors we have lost in the marks, lines, and drawings of Ballen’s photographs. The scene now includes birds, those feathered flying descendants of the dinosaurs. The images ache with the familiar, like the dream you had last night that you can no longer remember. The introduction of the aviary to Ballen’s menagerie is a fitting addition as it complements the energy. The bird archetype has a symbolic quality of beauty, purity, heavenly. The world of Roger Ballen is frequently complex, chaotic, earthy, and disturbing to some people. But the deeper levels of the unconscious do not disturb Ballen.
He observes, “The different levels of the mind are quite exhilarating to probe. Breaking through into unknown territory is exhilarating. The mind finds a part of itself. When it does, there is a feeling of epiphany. The process of taking photographs helps me find and realize that interaction. Turn your eyes around and photograph what you see. What is that place? The process should start here. Locate your mind and you will find photographs.
“I never take pictures with any ideas. I don’t try to think of anything because it’s hopeless. I try to go out with a quiet mind. There’s no point of thinking of words or ideas. It’s a science and an art. The meaning underneath is created by an emotional relationship to what is out there. The scientific mind is a construction. We have to be able to construct a world that has complex meanings and relationships defined by the other side of the mind.”
And it is by virtue of this fusion of so many different parts of the brain that Ballen’s photographs speak to us without words. The works are emotional, evocative, compelling, unexpected. There is a comfort with the obscure and the unknown, the uncanny, making them at once all too foreign, and all too familiar. The photographs are enigmatic and ambiguous, like fortune cookie served in an opium den.
Ballen notes, “Most of my pictures have an absurdity to them. I find the process humorous and absurd. I have a private laugh. It fits my humor. The picture should reflect a part of who I am. I look in the mirror and do the same thing. I am constantly trying to define Roger Ballen. A photograph is an important way to do this. It’s not the only way. It’s not necessarily the end all.”
But a book, a book tells a story, it creates a mood, it evokes feelings, ideas, energies for it is a repository of the soul. Asylum of the Birds will take you there. Where, you ask. Down the rabbit hole, into a landscape that now exists as a thing to behold and be held, as black inks are printed upon page after page after page. Iconography liberated from narratives re-forms itself as wordless poems from the mind of Roger Ballen.
http://www.thamesandhudson.com/Asylum_of_the_Birds/9780500544297
http://missrosen.wordpress.com
