Ronald Bal is a Netherlands based visual artist mainly focusing on live art, storytelling, installation and lens-based media. His work deals with distance and proximity in intimate systems and natural events. Inspired by social exchange, cyborg, history and ecology in the field of anthropology, he is currently focusing on the organic body and a digital text. Simulating the physical and the virtual by re-animating personal data combined with live events, on the border of theatre and visual art. His work often leads to installations where repetition of images and body movement are combined to support its narrative structure.
Folding in Reverse - Folding in Reverse documents the very first rehearsal of 2 dancers touching and exploring each other's bodies. There is no explicit narrative. The search for the sake of the search creates a tension that keeps the viewer hooked. In the installation pure experience, digital technology and materiality (porcelain panels) enter into a relationship with the viewer. The viewer literally steps into the installation, initially attracted by the Zen-like movements and sound, often followed by an examination of the installation itself.
The work originates from an extensive research into the nervous system of the human body. This theory is translated into movements performed by the dancers and into ct-scans of the maker’s body. An imprint of these scans are transformed into porcelain panels, on which the movement of the dancers is projected. As the audience walks through the installation, they become part of the projection and enter into a relationship with the dancers and the creator.
Catalysis - Catalysis forms the latest chapter within the Cyber Story – Series (2019-now). Where a character performs in dualistic mystery holding parts of its body as both witness and victim from its own creation. The cyborg, the cybernetic organism, plays a key role in the film, in which the cyborg is considered a hybrid machine and organism in one. The cyborg is a model for the mechanical expansion and metamorphosis of nature in the human body.
Error in Defoliation – Act I and II - The performance-installation Error in Defoliation creates a surreal doubling effect that plays with questions of truth and fiction. Act 1 talks about the replica of body parts, and is one part of a two-hour performance.
Year: 2021 - 2022
Duration: 20 minutes
Medium: Porcelain, Metal, Video, Audio, Costume
Credits: Work co-commissioned by Mondriaan Fonds, CBK Rotterdam and P.S. Performance Site
Performance-Installation - Year: 2020
Medium: Porcelain works, various methods and temperature Cobalt Blue and Copper Pigment
Dimensions: Archival objects with various dimensions.
Credits: Residency at Sundaymorning@ EKWC, Oisterwijk
Performance-Installation (Detail) - Year:2020
Medium:Porcelain works, various methods Temperature °C1120, 5% Copper Pigment
Dimensions: Various dimensions
Crossing - Crossing moves through the notion of human data, mining all forms of performance, framing new questions related to voyeurism, manipulation and experience.
