Ben Patton
Senior Manager
@CincyBen
We fink they freeky and we like it a lot?
When South African rap-ravers, Ninja and Yolandi Visser aka: Die Antwoord, teamed up with American born photographer and artist, Roger Ballen, the results were nothing short of crazy and creepy.
The trio has collaborated on Die Antwoords music videos, most notably the positively freek-tastic menagerie that is “I Fink U Freeky.” Not for the squeamish, or faint of heart, and definitely not the video you want to show your mom after church on Sunday; the video shows Yolandi cooking eggs with cockroaches, rats and snakes crawling on and around the duo, lots of weird art, sexual depictions and lots of flailing.
From there the group took their strange aesthetic to the publisher and a collection of unbridled insanity fills the pages. Of their intro to Ballen’s photography, Ninja and Yolandi said that, “This was the first time in our lives we saw South African art that slammed so fuckin’ hard and dark. Also, the two of us have never really been able to fit into any part of South African culture. So we related heavily to the strange, alienated people in Roger Ballen’s photographs, living on the fringes of South African society.”
Hyperallegic calls the aesthetic of the trio “perfect, planned chaos;” emphasis on the chaos. Distortions and grotesque depictions that put the psychosis of American Horror Story: Asylum to shame will both enthrall you and potentially disgust you.
There will be an exhibition of Ballen’s photographs, including some from his book with Die Antwoord, later this year at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art. Until then, you can check out some of the images from the series below. Brace yourself!
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