Profile: Ben Ali Ong

Ben Ali Ong is quickly making a name for himself on the Australian art scene. Born in Singapore in 1982, the Sydney-based artist has  exhibited widely with recent solo shows at Tim Olsen Gallery, the Queensland Centre for Photography and the Powerhouse Museum in Brisbane.

“Throughout my work I have been primarily interested in the suggestive possibilities between images, and the narrative I can create by juxtaposing the interior and exterior world beside each other. Portraits next to landscape, for example, and the tension between these two environments,” he says.

“Birds are frequent symbols that appear throughout the work. Inspired by mythology, they assume a variety of roles. They have been symbols of power and freedom throughout the ages, and are seen to link the human world to the divine. Silhouetted birds in the cloud scape, brooding vistas, faces emerging from darkness, all come together in an attempt to produce an imaginative and mysterious landscape.”

He shoots 35mm black and white film and layers negatives together during scanning. He also scratches the surface of  negatives to “evoke a dream like detachment of an earlier age.”


Ballads of the Dead and Dreaming #01. Image by Ben Ali Ong.



Ballads of the Dead and Dreaming #02. Image by Ben Ali Ong.



Ballads of the Dead and Dreaming #03. Image by Ben Ali Ong.



Ballads of the Dead and Dreaming #04. Image by Ben Ali Ong.



Ballads of the Dead and Dreaming #06. Image by Ben Ali Ong.



Ballads of the Dead and Dreaming #07. Image by Ben Ali Ong.



Ballads of the Dead and Dreaming #09. Image by Ben Ali Ong.



Ballads of the Dead and Dreaming #11. Image by Ben Ali Ong.