The Theatre of Apparitions Chapter 2 by Roger Ballen

Roger Ballen is one of the most important photographers of the 21st century. During his five decade career he has published twenty-eight books and his work is in the collections of over fifty of some of the most important museums in the world.

His iconic series, The Theatre of Apparitions is published as a book by Thames & Hudson, a short film, and is currently on display at the Venice Biennale Arte 2022, one of the most prestigious art events in the world. A select few of these artworks will be released as a rare limited NFT collection consisting of 1/1 NFTs, one 24 hour Open Edition NFT, one 1/1 NFT Giveaway to one lucky purchaser of the Open Edition, and one Collector Reward for those that collected the eight public 1/1s from the artist's genesis Nifty Gateway drop.

Ballen’s The Theatre of the Apparitions was initially inspired by the sight of hand-drawn carvings on blacked-out windows in an abandoned women's prison in South Africa. The artworks are photographs of drawings that the artist made on windows inside a building in Johannesburg. By inventing various techniques using materials such as spray-paints, epoxies, resins, emulsions and brushes, the artist created an otherworld in which transient, ghost-like figures perform. For Ballen, the photographs of these figures and the absurd activities in which they engage, present the unfathomable and primal scenes of our mental unconscious.

In particular, The Theatre of Apparitions is a place in which dreams, imaginative scenes, and primordial memory from the afterworld manifest themselves. These spirits or ghosts are imperceptible to the eye, yet they are deeply embedded in our consciousness and in our being. Earthly and otherworldly, physical and spiritual, this work transcends all traditional concepts of photography.

The buyer of each 1/1 NFT will receive a copy of Ballenesque: Roger Ballen: A Retrospective mailed to them.