Asha Zero

Asha Zero

About the artist

The South African artist Asha Zero was born in Kempton Park near Johannesburg in 1975.

Asha Zero is a pseudonym, intended to draw attention to identity as a shifting, unstable concept, while deflecting attention from the so-called person behind the name. In keeping with this notion, Zero's work deals with issues of fragmentedidentity in contemporary society, distressed and atomized by information overload virtual and authentic, false and true.

'Asha Zero is only one guise amongst many individuality-destroying pseudonyms. The name is not a signifier in a floating world of possible meaning. It is a flickering signal in a virtual domain of electronic meaninglessness.' (De Lange n.d:1)

Exploiting the disrupted, often politically inclined visual language of collage, Zero transposes abrasions and fractures into obsessively painted surfaces. Torn, scarred and disjointed images remain figurative, suggesting a desperate, contradictoryimpulse towards collapse and wholeness at the same time.

Anonymity, pseudonyms and collectives

Painting in acrylic is Zero's main mode of expression, but not the onlyone. Operating under several pseudonyms, including Broop Nook and Whatsnibble,Zero is involved in at least two bogus 'companies' or 'collectives',"Roadkillvisiontoiletries" and "Mobilediscoetcetera". These are platforms, so tospeak, for artistic interventions, publications or performances in anonymousmode, facilitating socio-political commentary of different kinds, similar tothe critical ways in which Banksy operates in London.

Career

Asha Zero spent three years between 1994 and 1997 at the Technikon Pretoria, now
Tshwane University of Technology and obtained a National Diploma in FineArt with majors in drawing, printmaking and photography. Important influencesincluded local street culture – skateboarding, graffiti and especially
electronic music. Regular participation in small exhibitions and performancesin Pretoria, Johannesburg and environs and in Cape Town paved the way for anartistic career.A short monograph on Asha Zero was published by MapZAR, a collecting andpublishing initiative by South African contemporary art aficionado, HarrieSiertsema.

Zero's work was shown at the Amsterdam "Realisme 08" art fair. When the show "Say for me " opened in Cape Town in March 2008, Zero's reputation had spread to the extent that the show sold out on the first night, largely to collectors from Europe and the UK.

References

[http://www.mapzar.org] [http://www.saartsemerging.org] [http://www.34long.com] [http://www.ashazero.com] [http://www.ingozidisco.co.za]

De Lange, S. n.d. "Oncefamousdeadartists". Monograph published by Mapzar (ModernArt Projects South Africa, an initiative by Harrie Siertsema)

34Long Fine Art. 2008. "Say for me". Exhibition catalogue ISBN 978-0-620-40475-4