Sand Between Your Toes , 2024
The work of Toni-Ann Ballenden began with figurative art and later oscillated toward abstract art, only to remain within the art genre. Ballenden constructs her work through a creative process characterised by burning and cutting to form something new. Ballenden begins with the act of destruction; her epilogue is a tender reassemblage of art and the self. To Ballenden, the catharsis resides in the reconstruction toward wholeness. Ballenden’s art process is rooted in artistic sublimation, which is an act of dismantling and piecing together, that functions as a source of therapy to touch on the heart of the grit and grace of subjective experience. Ballenden’s art is the capture of an intimately conscious reflection on observation and encounters that are personal yet resoundingly universal to the human condition.