One of Australia’s most promising emerging photographers, Kate Ballis has an eye for dramatic aesthetics. With a penchant for playing with light, complexity and finding beauty through darkness and shadow, her works draw the viewer into a supernatural world – whether it be through the candy-soaked California of a recent collection or the mysterious, inky tones of her latest collection, ‘Glace Noir’.
Shot using the Hollywood ‘day for night’ technique, the collection explores the Perito Moreno glacier in Argentina from various angles, exploring both the grand scale of the environment and its otherworldly elements, such as the purity of the water and the serenity of form. While the deep tones of the work may seem dark and almost sinister from afar, viewed up close the detail and beauty of the natural textures illuminate a sensual, deeply serene underworld.
“The thing I was most drawn to was the compositions of the glacial lakes and forms, rather than the true colours. The tour guide said in passing that the overcast day brought out the blues in the glacial lakes, and I could see the conditions were something special. I started thinking about what the glaciers would look like at night, or on another planet,” says Ballis.
Kicking off at Black Eye Gallery in Darlinghurst tonight, the exhibition will feature 16 individual works available in limited edition batches on 10. For landscapes that exude both mystery and intrigue, lightness and darkness, this collection has plenty of each, commanding the viewer to look deeper and closer.
‘Glace Noir’ opens 4th July and runs until 16 July.
Black Eye Gallery, 3/138 Darlinghurst Road, Darlinghurst
Open 10-6pm daily
“The images are neither day nor night and are devoid of sky, which makes you feel like you are encapsulated in the slow moving stillness of the glacier. You can feel the breath of the glacier and the blood-like liquid flowing through its venous canals,” says Ballis.
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