Asha Zero (born 1975 in Kempton Park near Johannesburg) is a South African artist.
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 fragmented identity 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, contradictory impulse 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 only one. 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 to speak, for artistic interventions, publications or performances in anonymous mode, facilitating socio-political commentary of different kinds, similar to the 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 Fine Art with majors in drawing, printmaking and photography. Important influences included local street culture – skateboarding, graffiti and especially electronic music. Regular participation in small exhibitions and performances in Pretoria, Johannesburg and environs and in Cape Town paved the way for an artistic career. A short monograph on Asha Zero was published by MapZAR, a collecting and publishing initiative by South African contemporary art aficionado, Harrie Siertsema.
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.
| Qualifications |
1994 - 1997 |
National Diploma (Fine Art) Technikon Pretoria, now Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). Majors: Drawing, Printmaking, Photography
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| Experience |
1997 |
Assistant, Purple and green, curated by Abrie Fourie, Pretoria Art Museum
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2003 |
Assistant, Willem Boshoff`s (B)reachings project, Museum Africa, Newtown, Johannesburg
Assistant, OUTLET art space/project room, TUT, Pretoria
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| Exhibitions |
2004 |
Winner in Hawaii, OUTLET, TUT |
2005 |
Pet names in reverse, 26 A Gallery, New Muckleneuk, Pretoria
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2008 |
say for me, 34 Long Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa
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| Group Exhibitions |
2004 |
Far and wide,curated by Gordon Froud, Absa Towers, Johannesburg |
2005 |
The specialist included in top 100, Ekhuruleni Metropolitan Council Arts Award, Kempton Park
Venture into the tinfoil shadow, body of work included on Resonance,show, VOIR Gallery, Brooklyn, Pretoria
OUTLET at Aardklop, curated by Abrie Fourie includes The Imposter, Dot Matrix and the blanket thief, and 6-piece sets of Roadkillvisiontoiletries booklets,Snowflake Building, Potchefsroom |
2006 |
Beeldspraak, project curated by Gordon Froud and Chris Diedericks includes The imposter, University of Johannesburg
New Suburbia, curated by Love and Hate, includes Insolvent, Platform on 18th, Rietondale, Pretoria
Asha Zero + Shane de Lange,The A Gallery, Graskop Hotel, Graskop
SA arts emerging group show,The Bag Factory, Johannesburg
The inevitable, curated by Love and Hate includes November Special, Moja Modern, Parktown, Johannesburg
The collage show, curated by Michael Taylor,Whatiftheworld,
Woodstock, Cape Town |
2007 |
Twogether , 34LONG FINE ART, Long Street, Cape Town
INGOZI DISCO, collaboration with Shane de Lange, CAPE 07 fringe. VEGA, Greenpoint, Cape Town www.ingozidisco.co.za
FACE, 34 LONG FINE ART, Cape Town
REVEAL, 34 LONG FINE ART, Cape Town
AWAY, MAP ZAR, Richmond, Northern Cape |
2008 |
REAL IS ME 08, Art fair, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Face 08, 34 LONG FINE ART, Cape Town
Scope Art Fair, London
White Noise, Black Rat Press, London
FOUR, 34 LONG FINE ART, Cape Town |
2009 |
London Art Fair, UK
Solo Exhibition 15 October 2009, Black Rat Press, London
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| Projects |
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Ongoing since 1998 |
Roadkillvisiontoiletries, company/blanket operation by characters Asha Zero, Whatsnibble, Broop Nook and Zandu Flinker trading as mobilediscoetcetera producing art works, projects, t-shirts, sticker campaigns, booklets |
2000 - 2002 |
Cybervaseline, self published punk style zine curated by Sjaka Septembir, 16 editions of 300 |
2004 |
You can't play mas and fraid powder, collaboration between Roadkillvisiontoiletries and Marlon Griffith (from Trinidad), the
Bag Factory, Fordsburg, Johannesburg |
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CAMP ZERO : the great indoors 19 June 2004 Camp out in OUTLET project room TUT arts campus, Pretoria . Overnight event : Graffiti by LOVE AND HATE, Classic films on show, exhibition of participating artist's work |
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Winner in Hawaii: Part 2 Intervention by Ruth Sacks during Winner in Hawaii ( Outlet, November 2004 ) |
2006 |
A 5 : social.logical.art – intrigue Issue 1, 2006. Asha Zero graphic work featured in this publication by LOVE AND HATE |
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WHO AM IS Outlet, TUT Arts Campus Pretoria |
2007 |
Mini Decoy, Blank projects, Bo-Kaap, Cape Town
The Walls curated by Love and Hate, includes Ingozi Disco printed canvas, Canned Applause records, Melville, Johannesburg
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| Press |
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Zero defies definition: artist plays with issues of identity and reality Pretoria News, 26 October 2004 ( Winner in Hawaii )
Three artists and some heat Pretoria News, 24 November 2005
( Venture into the tinfoil shadow )
Die drie skilder met die moed van hul oortuiging Beeld, 29 November 2005 ( Resonance )
Die wêreld deur die oë van Asha Zero Beeld , Beeldspraak insert in Plus section of Beeld Newspaper. 14 February 2006. Asha Zero selected as the 51 st artist in Beeldspraak project .
Bubbling Under : Up – and – coming South African artists Profiles on ten established and emerging artists. Asha Zero Page 21, Contempo Magazine, Edition 1, April / May 2006 (www.contempo.co.za )
MAP ZAR booklet - Asha Zero, ( mapzar@mweb.co.za ) 2006
Feature: Asha Zero : www.saartsemerging.org, 2006
Small can be smart Cape Times, 23 November 2006 ( The collage show )
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Lost in the post Asha Zero, A look away magazine Issue 4 First Quarter 2007. Article by Shane De Lange
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| Collections |
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Sanlam Art Collection
Graskop Hotel Art Collection
Jack Ginsberg Collection
and other key private collections in the UK, Europe and USA |
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