Waif , 2012 from The World According to Roger Ballen, co-authored with Colin Rhodes, published by Thames and Hudson. — *Waif* , 2012 from *The World According to Roger Ballen,* co-authored with Colin Rhodes, published by Thames and Hudson.

The World According to Roger Ballen, co-authored with Colin Rhodes provides an extensive view of Roger Ballen’s work, from his photographs and recent installations to pictures of his own art collection. In the beginning of the book, his artwork is punctuated by informational texts written by Rhodes. His texts respond to Ballen’s cultural ties, providing insight on his ballenesque style, his place in the art brut genre, and ends in a thought-provoking interview of Ballen.

Ballen’s imagination dives right into corners of the human psyche where we usually prefer not to go. He’s the kind of fascinating person that is comfortable being in a room filled with old doll heads, bones and skulls or stuffed animals. The book invites the reader into his universe, where his eccentricity is rendered clear and piercing.

Much like Freud’s dreamwork process, the elements in his compositions evoke symbols and resist creating a single coherent narrative. I am captivated by his work because there is something performative about the nature of the composition. Some of his photographs, such as Trophy Hunter, Discussion, or Superman, look like they are staged scenes of the unconscious and the chaos that it represents. Their tragic mood grips onto you like a nightmare.

Superman, 2018, from The World According to Roger Ballen, co-authored with Colin Rhodes, published by Thames and Hudson. — *Superman,* 2018, from *The World According to Roger Ballen,* co-authored with Colin Rhodes, published by Thames and Hudson.

Amidst the stillness of the crippled looking rooms filled with broken objects, dismembered figures and broken-down furniture, there often creeps a live animal, a fluffy bunny with blood-shot eyes, a sneaky rat or a couple of monkey eyes blending in the gaping wall, catching our gaze. Ballen’s universe is dreamy and surreal, a mood specific to his style that continues into the Wires theme section, the first showing humans in action. The Twirling Wires photograph for example hones in on an anguished man’s gaze at the bottom of the frame looking up at frenetically entangled pieces of wire.

The Wires series in particular speaks to the crudeness and psychological torment that permeates through his work, perhaps because of the affliction that these people project and the sense of ruin in the homes and buildings of his subjects. In Wires, his subject is the white population living on the fringe of South Africa, whose bodies seem to disappear behind masks, wires and other objects of his compositions. Roger Ballen’s work is unforgettable, in a similar manner as rupestrian paintings are memorable and enduring. Recently, Ballen collaborated with the South African music group Die Antwoord, who also seeks inspiration from freaks for a music video that quickly became viral. This association gave his work another dimension and extended his audience.

The Slender-looking figures in his work are something out of every child’s nightmare and remind every adult of their primal fears. The drawings in his photographs are also evocative of Jean Dubuffet’s drawings from his collection called More Beautiful Than They Think: Portraits, where he draws people in their true nature, in the same manner Ballen does.

Mixing drawing, painting, collage and various sculptural techniques to create imposing installations and captivating photographs, Roger Ballen established a new hybrid aesthetic bound by the art of photography.