The Thousands

Ugly is beautiful. You know it. I know it. Betty knows it. And, as it turns out, a local photographer called Ben Ong knows it too.

Something of a gloom-whore, Ben spent a large part of 2006 loitering amongst a bunch of dilapidated buildings through the city where he set about kicking stuff, photographing his mates and generally soaking up the atmosphere of spectacular waste.
**The resulting black and white images included in BROKEN BEAUTY depict a magical city. A spacious, languid place alive with barbed wire, shattered glass, crumbled bricks, blistered paint and weeds blossoming through cracks in the concrete. Sporadically a lone figure, spray can in hand, features amongst the rubble but like a visitor to a grand cathedral, their isolated presence merely highlights the magnificent desolation.

For fellow sorrow-sluts, the exhibition feels a little like someone has looked inside your brain and taken photos of your silent, wasteland dreams. Weird.