Figures crossing borders - the creative world of Michael Ball
Constantly questioning motif, craft and aesthetic rules, Michael Ball likes his artistic work to delve into the deeper layers of the subconscious. His sculptures combine archetypal images with an anti-classical concept of form to create a poetry of the irrational. A world of figures is created that produces new mutations in continuous coupling, creatures placed to mediate in the border zones of visionary internal space and civilized external space.
Michael Ball sees artistic work as an open process, as drifting into a space of inner relaxation - while at the same time concentrating on the moments at which forms rise up from the depths like shadowy figures, accompanied in their growth and heightened in their expression. He loves such moments, and feeds them lavishly by using a whole variety of materials and media for his work.
New expressive possibilities arise from their qualities and the superimposition of a number of different experiences. So hand drawing, printed and computer graphics, works on paper and cardboard, assemblages made of found items, terracotta and bronze sculptures stand side by side, with equal rights.
The studio reflects this approach. It is like a large laboratory in which different things are constantly being tried out, compared and developed further.
We find generations of small and large figures between materials, on shelves and in showcases.
Assembled like this, they tangibly point beyond their individual roles to the forces from the subconscious that bind them together, forming an almost magical counterweight to our increasingly technical-functionalist and virtually determined view of human life.
Regensburg, November 2005 - Bernhard Dominik