Looking at the horrific photos taken by photographer Roger Ballen leaves a stain on the mind. But it’s another experience to lunge into the twisted world of rats, ghostly animals and psychological dioramas.
Ballen’s new Inside Out center in Johannesburg consists of two floors, which explore the so-called golden age of game hunting through artefacts and photographs before entering Ballen’s menagerie of strange installations and unnatural images.
“The criteria for a place is the psychological impact. It stays there like a virus that mutates and changes, you can’t get rid of it,” said Ballen.
‘End of the Game’
The center opened to the public in March with an exhibition End of the Game, which focuses on the interaction between animals and humans. It is not a new subject for Ballen, and leans more towards the wildlife of animals in a chaotic domestic setting.
For his work to be understood, Ballen says we must start with the facts. Research and historical context behind it End of the Game is on the first floor and looks at the zeitgeist of the early 1900s when Westerners viewed Africa as a dreamworld for those with an appetite for hunting. These people include powerful people such as former British prime minister Winston Churchill and former US presidents Theodore Roosevelt, who only killed about 2,000 animals.
Roosevelt’s trip to Africa reflected the luxury of safari travel, which added to the appeal of traveling to Africa to hunt big game. Hundreds of people brought equipment for the travelers, including tents, home comforts from the US, animal hide preserves and gold-mounted rabbit’s feet for good luck.
Ballen is not a documentary photographer; he has taken pictures of claustrophobic places such as houses and rooms, as in his exhibition Asylum of the Birds and Shadow Chambers.
Ballen and his team asked, “How can we explain the rapid and continuous appeal of hunting big game in Africa, which has caused tragic, mass destruction of wildlife and ecological crisis on the continent today?”
“Hunting is considered luxury hunting. What motivates people to come to Africa for science, because they think it is a homogeneous continent, geographically empty,” explained Amanda Ballen, program director at the Inside Out Center.
Rifles, binoculars, telescopes and archival hunting photographs from his African hunting conquests make you think of Ballen’s work, which features stuffed animals, a merry-go-round decorated with skulls and a one-room shack covered in hand drawings. face
These photographs show how hunting is considered an expression of power, masculinity and a man’s sport. These people see Africa as a pristine wild playground.
The body count of hunted animals appears in exported commodities such as tusks for piano keys and hunting artifacts, perpetuating the African hunting fantasy.
Dungeon
Go down the central main staircase to experience the convergence of the “Ballenesque” world and the old world of African hunting safaris. “Ballenesque” is the term most commonly used to describe the aesthetic of Ballen’s images, which take the viewer to a part of the psyche that most dare not explore.
His signature monochromatic photographs capture the darkness, violence and disaster that humans can imagine, but find difficult to face. The latest exploration into color photography injects an element of humor into the world of our minds.
The lower level of the center is described as “mengerie dreamlike objects: photographs and installations of real, taxidermied, and artificial animals, humans and hybrids involved in playful and strange scenes”.
Ballen also jokingly called this area “the dungeon”.
Ballen’s new work for example Leopard Lady (2023), and photos like it Cat Catcher (1998) of the crescendo of the themed platteland period End of the Game. The question is whether the relationship between humans and animals is positive or negative, or even positive.
“Animals are scattered in my space: cats, dogs, mice, chickens, snakes and others. Dead and alive, big and small, wild and tame. Everywhere you look, there are animals,” said Ballen.
He says that you, as both the viewer and the hunted animal, cannot escape “it” – “it” is the dark part of the human condition that drives us to do bad things and live bad lives. No matter where you look, it will find you, Ballen explains.
If you walk away from the Inside Out Center fearing a nightmare, Ballen says, “That’s good news, it’s exactly what you need!”
Inside the Out Center is on 48 Jan Smuts Avenue, Forest Town, Johannesburg. For more information visit: insideoutcentreforthearts.com