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Roger Ballen + Die Antwoord “I Fink U Freeky”
April 26, 2013 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Beverly Hills, April 2013 – Keiko Noah Maestro, at Mouche Gallery, invites you to get sucked into the vortex of the award winning viral video sensation “I Fink U Freeky” world of Roger Ballen and Die Antwoord at Mouche Gallery. Installation opens on April 26, 2013 during the Paris Photo LA 2013. The primitive, provocative paintings and drawings at the core of the composition of these exquisite photographs pose center stage and take on a life of their own at this installation at Mouche Gallery.
MASTERS OF REALITY – “If someone punches you in the face fokken hard, it makes you stop thinking about everything except, ‘What the fok just happened?’” – ¥o-landi (Die Antwoord) “Suddenly we stopped liking all the music and art we had made up till this point and decided to throw it all away. This new dark comic book world was the fokken answer! We wanted to move into this world and leave our old reality behind. This new world was so alien but also so strangely familiar. So mysterious comforting and exciting.“ – A letter from Die Antwoord, to Roger Ballen.
Ballen is one of the most important photographers of his generation. Over the past thirty years his distinctive style of photography has evolved using a simple square format in stark and beautiful black and white. Ballen has long approached unexpected realities with an unflinching and empathetic style, using dark imagery and taking a psychological approach to his craft. Ballen considers black and white photography as a minimalist art form, which provides an abstract way to interpret and transform what one may refer to as reality or disturbing psychodramas.
Roger Ballen’s photographs have been shown in, and collected by some of the most prestigious institutions including the Tate, Smithsonian, Centre Georges Pompidou, Victoria & Albert Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Creative Assistant, Michael Florian will be helping Keiko transform the gallery to create a very special welcome for Roger Ballen, and Ballen/Die Antwoord Collectors. Florian brings years of experience, having worked with some of the world’s most prominent photographers including, Pierre and Gilles, Mario Testino, Ellen Von Unverth, David LaChappelle, to name a few.
About Mouche Gallery
“The Aritist is the Muse at Mouche! The artist is our inspiration,” says Maestro (Owner) Keiko Noah. Keiko conducts the gallery as a space for creativity & collaboration for inspiring minds to launch, celebrate and embrace art in its ever expanding form. It always starts with the vision, the artist, the eye behind the lens and brush. Discovering the eyes, voids, voice of the artist, has taken the gallery on a magical adventure with every exhibition. This is at the core of Mouche Culture. Vive la Mouche!
About Die Antwoord
This high energy, rave rap outfit from South Africa caused the Internet to explode when, “I Fink You Freeky” and “Zef Side” hit YouTube and spread like tuberculosis, with over 26 Million Views each. The virus analogies can’t stop there, as everything about Die Antwoord is totally infectious, be it the music, the tattoos, the hair, the Zef style, or the Afrikaans slang. Given that Die Antwoord translates from Afrikaans to the Answer, it begs one to ask: What’s the question? Probably something along the lines of, “Are these two for fokken real?