Mike Ballard
Mike Ballard is a London based artist who works across numerous
visual media- collage, painting, installation and sculpture- along with
film and music.
Inspired by Graffiti art and Hip-Hop music, both of which he has been producing
since the mid-80’s. Ballard explores the connections between audio and visual
forms. Sampling sounds and re-assembling discarded audio
equipment, he questions the fragility on technology, creating bridges between
old and new worlds.
Within his work one medium becomes animated by another,
creating appropriated hybrids. Found objects become electrified, painting
on films and films about painting, battle between function and aesthetic
value, each gaining a new status that questions the value of everything.
Ballard’s paintings and prints challenge structures of perception, presenting
powerful visions close to an hallucinogenic experience. This experience
makes us question
whether the world we see when we are “straight” is, in fact, the real world;
or is it somewhere outside, uncertain, mediated and not to be trusted?