Tommy Can’t Sleep

This article originally appeared on Noisey US. Die Antwoord's new short film, Tommy Can't Sleep, opens with a shadow-eyed kid called Tommy lying in a bed beneath an AK-47, the words "PENIS FUCK" scrawled onto the headboard, rat noises in the background. The first word that leaves Tommy's mouth is "FUCK." He doesn't like the [...]
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Within the ballenesque

Roger Ballen’s strange, psychological scene-scapes, with their immersive black-and-white aesthetic, are a powerful force in contemporary photography. Ballen’s work is always compulsive viewing, says Colin Rhodes.

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The Protean and Unsettling Universe of Roger Ballen

This article originally appeared on beautifulbizarre.net If one thing is certain, it is that the art of Beautiful Bizarre Magazine issue 007’s featured photographer Roger Ballen will get you out of your comfort zone. In the work of this South African photographer, the ratio of beautiful and bizarre is indeed unstable. Few artworks in contemporary art can [...]
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Interview with Roger Ballen by Ken Weingart

Roger Ballen is well known fine art photographer who has been creating exciting imagery for over 50 years. He has been widely exhibited in museums and galleries all over the world. His innovative work has created a new adjective in the Art world: “ Ballenesque”. In this interview, I had the opportunity to get inside […]

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Roger Ballen: Theatrical Mechanics

Roger Ballen: The Theatre of Apparitions captures the full creative scope of a figure known for investigations into the human unconscious. The artist’s early work depicting sub-cultures who lived on the fringes of society were initially met with public hesitance, however, his subsequent series Shadow Chamber (2005), Boarding House (2009) and Asylum (2011) paved Ballen’s […]

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Retrospective of South African photo artist lays his career bare

Istanbul Modern Photograph Gallery is hosting a retrospective exhibition of US-born South African artist Roger Ballen. The exhibition follows Ballen’s works which he has been producing since the 1980s. Ballen’s distinctive and unique style of photography evolved from a form of documentary photography into a style that he describes as “ballenesque.” Ballen employs drawing, painting, [...]
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Book Launch: Roger Ballen’s The Theatre of Apparitions

Alexander Bar & Theatre, 7 Strand Street, Cape Town Sunday 11 December 2016 at 4pm Join artist Roger Ballen, one of the most original image-makers of our times, as he takes us deep into his photographic psychodrama at the launch of his latest publication The Theatre of Apparitions (Thames & Hudson). The evening will include a [...]
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