Five hands

In this piece, Ballen photographed a theatrical image of hands positioned in a certain way with a bird flying above it. This image is part of his larger series called, Asylum of the birds, which talked about the primitive nature of humans. Ballen video documented and photographed how mentally insane people lived with animals and mostly birds. Viewing the images of the series and the video included will evoke certain angst as to why these people do not live civilized. Ballen uses this feeling to comment on the primitive state that all human minds are conditioned in.