Sarah Ball 'Accused Part 2'

S a r a h B a l l | A c c u s e d Pa r t 2

Introduction

What does a por trait represent? Can a por trait ever claim to capture the identity of the sitter beyond the superfiscial? Albert Einstein once stated; “A human being is a part of the whole, called by us Universe... We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us...”

So how can the ar tist hope to represent that which remains out of reach? A por trait therefore can only represent an attempt to breach ones own prison. It can inspire a glimpse out (of ourselves) and propel us towards a glimpse in (to another). This attempt to connect paints a picture in part of disconnection; the bridge to cross is one of empathy. Sarah Ball’s paintings taken from mug shot photog raphs enforce this notion in an intriguing way.

Photog raphy creates an immediate perception of character and so the identity of the object is a product of that instant perception. With mug shot’s there are relatively few ‘tells’ due to an insisted inherent expressive blankness on the face of the accused. They are not memorabilia, not sentimental, not imbued or weighted by emotion, they are the opposite of what photog raphs often represent – What do we notice in the absence of such freighted theatricality – isolation, defiance, vulnerability, tr uth? The only clue, the only other thing that we have to make our judgment on this person is that they are perhaps a criminal – in the absence of all else it is the sum of who they are – is this enough to complete our picture? This is frequently the case for Ball also, who often knows little else of the subject or their fate, so unlike the painter who can sit with the subject and attempt through discourse or familiarity to reveal a tr uth, all Ball has is the silent eng agement with her own processes of 1

sympathetic identification. She claims that the objective is not simply in searching for a figurative likeness, but the essence to make the painting right.

This exhibition is a continuation of a body of work, the first part of which was exhibited at Millennium last year. It focuses more specifically on g roups of people; from civil rights movement activists, fire raisers (members of the KKK) and poisoners alongside people whose crimes were suspicious, dangerous or simply unknown. Some of the crimes are despicable whilst others may have been heroic. The collective creates a ver y human portrait, of the shifting nature of right and wrong. Enforcing the changing subjectivity of judgment - these portraits challenge us to move beyond our own positive or negative judgments, if that is possible?

Controversial film maker David Cronenberg stated; “As an artist you look into yourself to understand the human potential to be all kinds of things that are not necessarily pleasant but are real - a criminal, a murderer, a sadist, a rapist; to be all of these things that many people are. You can’t allow yourself to say, ‘I’m a different species from those people.’ Because you aren’t. The criminal as monster is kind of common. That’s ver y convenient because you can then say, ‘Of course I’m not a monster, therefore I’m not a criminal therefore I have no potential in ter n of criminality.’ And that lets you off the hook. That gives you a nice wall between yourself and them.” Sarah Ball’s g reatest achievement with these intimate works is to effectively break down walls and create bridges – for me the function of ar t itself.

Joseph Clarke . 2013

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Activist oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 3

Activist oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 4

Activist oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 5

Activist oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 6

Activist oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 7

Activist oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 8

Activist oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 9

Activist oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 10

Activist oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 11

Activist oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 12

Activist oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 13

Activist oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 14

Activist oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 15

Activist oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 16

Activist oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 17

Activist oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 18

Activist oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 19

Activist oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 20

Activist oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 21

Fire Raiser oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 22

Fire Raiser oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 23

Fire Raiser oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 24

Fire Raiser oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 25

Poisoner oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 26

Poisoner oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 27

Poisoner oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 28

Poisoner oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 29

Poisoner oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 30

Suspicious and Dangerous Person oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 31

Suspicious and Dangerous Person oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 32

Suspicious and Dangerous Person oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 33

Suspicious and Dangerous Person oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 34

Suspicious and Dangerous Person oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 35

Unknown oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 36

Unknown oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 37

Unknown oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 38

Unknown oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 39

Unknown oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 40

Unknown oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 41

Unknown oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 42

Unknown oil on gessoed panel | 18 x 13 cm 43

Biog raphy

Sarah Ball g rew up in South Yorkshire and studied at New port Art College.

After working in London throughout the late 80s and 90s, she returned to Wales to concentrate solely on painting and complete an MFA at Bath Spa University in 2005. She is represented by Millennium.

Ball’s most recent works are intricate and diminutive painted portraits taken from police ‘mugshots’. These delve into ideas sur rounding 19th Centur y physiognomy - which was a widely explored and believed notion that there was a connection between an individual’s outward appearance and their inner character - in essence g ood people ‘looked g ood’ and bad people ‘looked bad’.

This research prog ressed to include Alphone Bertillon’s identification system.

Bertillon was a French police officer and biometrics researcher who applied the anthropological technique of anthropometr y to law enforcement, creating an identification system based on physical measurements.

Acclaim for Sarah Ball continues to g row with two recent pieces selected and curated by Edith Devaney the Curator of Contemporar y projects in the new portraiture room at the RA Summer Show, 2013. The work was shown alongside ar tists such as Frank Auerbach, Gavin Turk, Gar y Hume, Julian Opie, Elizabeth Peyton, Alex K atz and Michael Craig Mar tin.

Ball is cur rently Weslh Ar tist of the Year, having been shortlisted in 2007 and 2009. She also recently one The Best of Wales prize at The National Open Art Competition, 2012. Sarah was also shor tlisted for the Threadneedle Prize in 2009 and has ag ain been shor tlisted this year.

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Published by Millennium to coincide with the exhibition ‘Accused Part 2’ by Sarah Ball All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publishers Publication produced by Impact Printing Services (www.impactprintingservices.co.uk) Interview Film by Alban Roinard and Joseph Clarke

ISBN 978-1-905772-63-7

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