Roger Ballen

The house of the Ballenesque

Maison des peintres

The House of the Ballenesque is a place where the different parts of my photography and installation art come together, a place where all things are possible. Each room in this house represents an important aspect of my aesthetic. My journey in photography has proved to me that the home is a place of deep discovery. Where people seek refuge from the outside, they often make the most perilous journey inward. There is something suggestive of life lived in its fullness with all its complexity in the weighty presence of the unmade bed, the frayed couch, the broken window, the rickety chair, the skew picture, the wounded plastic doll. Working from the metaphor of the mind as a house, the viewer is guided along a path of association based on analogies between images, from darkness to light, from cellar to attic.
Roger Ballen

Prints and wallpaper by Atelier SHL, Arles.
With support from the Rubis Mécénat cultural fund and Hamiltons Gallery, London.