From the shadow of the unconscious

Photographer Roger Ballen's latest book both continues the trajectory of his recent work and marks a significant departure.

Asylum of the Birds by Roger Ballen

Reviewed by Graham Wood

Photographer Roger Ballen's latest book both continues the trajectory of his recent work and marks a significant departure. There are still the nightmarish black-and-white images of alienated people and animals (this time all birds) in mysterious settings, as in earlier books such as Shadow Chamber, Boarding House and his recent collaboration with Die Antwoord, I Fink U Freeky. But more than ever, this collection of works shows Ballen's transformation into something more like a multidimensional artist.

He doesn't take photographs so much as create complex scenes, artistic assemblages with props and drawings within which an absurd theatre plays out, which he then captures on film. He also created an accompanying ''documentary" video with Ben Crossman, who worked with Ballen on Die Antwoord's I Fink U Freeky video.

Of course, in true Ballen style, it doesn't explain anything about his work, but it does add an interesting new dimension to it. As much as ever, Asylum of the Birds continues Ballen's broader project of treating photography as a serious art form.

The density and complexity of his images, the layers of accumulated detail and time, and the carefully captured "transformative moment", all show Ballen's investment in resisting the hegemony of mass media and delving for something authentic and arresting from the shadow of the unconscious. In this book, art becomes an asylum in both senses: both madhouse and refuge.

Watch the film at www.asylumofthebirds.com

Asylum of the Birds is available from David Krut Bookstore or from Kalahari.com for R628