Artists We Love: Asha Zero

INTERVIEWED BY Amelia Brown IMAGES courtesy of SMAC Gallery


With Cape Town-based artist Asha Zero’s third solo exhibition currently on at SMAC gallery in Joburg, we chatted to him about how he developed his hyper-realistic painting style.

Asha’s approach to painting shares conceptual ground with collage. His graphic deconstructions are known for turning a lens on traditional notions of identity and representation, which are dominated by contemporary media, branding, marketing and advertising,

His current exhibition, on until 14 April 2018 at SMAC Gallery, implies a concern with reality and appearance in terms of a personal identity in an online world, says artist and art writer Natasha Norman. “set user is a term associated with gaming avatars. Since user identity can readily be changed, it denotes the ability to interact with reality as one identity amongst many, hence the requirement to set the user for the activity to commence,” she explains.

Asha gave us some more insight into his thought process.

How did you come up with the title of the new collection?
The paintings in set user consist of a lot of images I found online, and the titles are glitchy computer file titles or parts of code – this is a thread that runs through the body of work. The title suggests a interaction with an interface of some sort.

How did you develop your technique and style?
My paintings have developed from printmaking techniques as well as a basic exploration into photography. I created collage drawings that incorporated bits and pieces of etchings, silkscreen prints, photographs, and magazine images. Eventually, I started hand-rendering all the individual parts to resemble the collage-like appearance of the printed and pasted fragments, and the paintings developed from there.

How do you choose your subject matter?
I like to play with images I come across by chance – something found in a heap of bargain bin magazines or online – and then to try and create some sort of juxtaposition or composition to work into a painting. The mediated image becomes the subject.

What inspires you?
There isn’t much in terms of inspiration involved with creation of the work – for me, the production of the paintings is quite process-driven, quite systematic. There are moments of accidental inspiration when the source material may present itself in some sort of “chance” composition, almost like something inspired by the studio environment.

If you could collaborate with any South African artist who would it be?
Collaborations are tricky; something to consider very carefully, but well worth considering because it can lead to very rewarding outcomes. I’m open to the idea. One such rewarding local collaboration was with Black River Studio’s 50ty/50ty project where we produced a silkscreen print called Bit Coupon. The project works with artists and designers to translate their work into a silkscreen print, an exciting process where art and design disciplines meet and innovative and surprising solutions are found in the process of collaboration.

If you weren’t an artist, what would you be?
I can imagine being an architect.

Which one of your pieces have you most enjoyed working on so far?
So difficult to narrow it down, but I reckon my shortlist would include the surfboard I created for the 2015 Wavescape Artboard Auction, as well as exxdlip (2017) and 8aaea7df4ab03d8 (2017).

What time of day do you prefer to work in?
I used to be a night owl, but it’s flipped and now I’m a 9-5 person.

The last time you travelled, what did you buy, where and why?
I have nothing to declare.

Highlight of your career?
I’m going to flatten this out: Everything is a bit of highlight, simply because to be able to work as an artist is a privilege.

What’s your five-year plan?
I would like to expand the base of my discipline and diversify my art practice. Part of the plan would be to allow for time with experimental offshoots, which can be quite an arduous task, and try and work the results into solo exhibitions in the next five years.

Read more about set user, including the official exhibition text by Natasha Norman, here and visit the exhibition at 1st Floor, The Trumpet, 19 Keyes Avenue, Rosebank.