Interview: Artist Ashkan Honarvar
I’m subconsciously trying to answer my own questions…
This interview was conducted with Ashkan Honarvar, over email by NAILED Arts Editor, Shenyah Webb.
NAILED MAGAZINE: I would like to begin with your material sources. It seems like you make use of a lot of pornography intertwined with textbook illustrations. What are your thoughts on pornography? Are you simply mutilating it?
ASHKAN HONARVAR: Most of my projects are about the human condition. The human body plays a major role in almost every one of them. I’m always interested in deforming the human body and at the same time trying to tell a story. Some of my projects have a sexual story behind them so there it was almost natural to use pornographic images. But usually I just use them because you see the whole body naked. So it’s just easier to deform and manipulate it. Also clothes could be connected to a certain time or period. So they just distract if the story that you want to tell is not playing in a certain time.
I love creating art that just confuses the viewer. For example, I love it when I have created a collage that radiates death, life, sexuality, loss and beauty all at the same time for I believe nothing is black or white.
NAILED: What is one of your pieces that you feel best “radiates death, life, sexuality, loss and beauty all at the same time?”
HONARVAR: There are many projects that radiate these themes. But if I have to choose a single image then it would be one collage from the Creed/Eve series. This project was about the stories from the Old Testament and in this section I was focusing on the story of Eve. On the final collage you can see a women with a dress, her face is covered and in front of her under belly she is holding a sliced peach. I really like the symbolism and the reference to the Garden of Eden and at the same time to her sexuality as a woman. There is this eeriness to the image because her face is covered, it looked like old post mortem photographs where the deceased would be sat down on a chair and photographed by their loved ones as a final memory.
NAILED: Many of your pieces reflect the fundamental issues of human existence. Do you have any thoughts on transhumanism? Do you feel the idea of humans tampering with the natural human condition in an attempt to overcome universal human limitations is ethical?
HONARVAR: On one hand I do believe in the good of transhumanism because we shouldn’t block our evolution, but on the other hand we’d probably just fuck it up and misuse the whole progress for the wrong things like the Nazi human experiments during the Second World War.
NAILED: Can you expand on your beliefs of the human condition?
HONARVAR: For me it’s important to be aware, I want to know as much as I can about us humans and by doing so understanding “myself.” You could see it as a double way mirror that I’m holding up for humanity to see their own reflection and at the same time I also see what they see and learn from it.
I believe we make the same mistakes over and over and over again. Wars, genocides and famine have always been and will probably always be. Not a single history book makes a difference here for we always forget fast or just don’t want to think about it for a long time. Human memory is really brief. And of course from the outside we look like we have evolved physically or technologically. In many ways we don’t look like our apelike ancestors but deep inside we are still the same. The same as the first monkey that took a stone and smashed in the head of the other monkey. Just because he could.
We live on a planet surrounded by infinite cold and death and this is hard to accept for the majority of us. Hard to accept that there is a big chance that this is it! There is nothing after death and that we are not the center of the universe and maybe god doesn’t exist. Religion is a way for us to cope with this uncertainty where we don’t have any control. The infinity of emptiness is then replaced by an invisible god figure. It gives us hope and the basic rules are always righteous and good. But in the end we also manage to abuse religion in many ways and turn it into violence and war for that is just our nature.
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From the series, The Void. Various human-organic forms replace the central figure in these collages of a leader, his entourage and supporters. By melting and mixing Adolf Hitler with his surroundings Ashkan Honarvar wishes to accentuate the fact that it takes more than a single person to cause annihilation. The collective mind is also accountable for the actions of its government.
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NAILED: Did you have any struggles with growing up an Iranian boy in The Netherlands?
HONARVAR: At first it was difficult but of coarse you get used to it. And when you’re a kid things are much easier to adjust to. I was born in Iran, lived a few years in Turkey then grew up in The Netherlands and now I live in Norway. If someone would ask me where I’m from I would still say I’m Persian but at the same time I don’t have anything in common with that culture or religion. At the same time I know the Dutch traditions but I’m not 100% Dutch. So I don’t have a real sense of nationality.
I used to get frustrated by this lack of nationality but when I grew older I got calmer and started seeing it clearer. It’s okay to say, I don’t belong to them or them, and just be your own self.
NAILED: Do you have a series that resonates with you most? Can you expand on the meaning and process?
HONARVAR: That is a difficult question. If you would have asked me this a few years ago I would have chosen a specific project but that has changed for me now. In the last year I have been reflecting more and more on my projects and wondering why I’m making these works. Since then I have created a strong feeling that everything I have done until know is somehow connected to each other. And not only how they are made but also more on a conceptual level. Somehow it feels as if I’m telling a grand story that just grows over time.
The majority of my projects start with a question. Questions about the meaning of life, death, the universe, human condition, origins of evil, etc. I’m aware that these are not the easiest questions but by creating these projects, it somehow helps me to understand them better, to give it a place in my life.
So in a way I’m subconsciously trying to answer my own questions through making these collages. The curiosity for these subjects is something that I’ve always had and I can’t exactly tell you where it came from.
Usually when I get an idea I look for new books to use. I only make handmade collages so I’m dependent on what I have around me. I try not to reuse books that I’ve already used for other projects so that way all the projects have a different vibe to them. Every project has to start fresh from scratch. This way I discover new ways to work and can surprise myself. Also you don’t have all the ‘answers’ right away, they can appear while you’re working on them. The source material I use always works on a symbolic/metaphorical level. I always look for images that can be interpreted in different ways. So I can tell my story through them.
NAILED: When was the last time you NAILED it?
HONARVAR: The last time I NAILED it was with the project Wunderkind, a fashion collaboration with Wolfgang Joop for his German fashion brand. The Spring-Summer collection’s main theme was a famous Janis Joplin quote: “Freedom is just another word for nothing else to lose.” My main goal was to create images that radiated freedom, color, life and a certain fiery spark that matched Wunderkind’s image and the wonderful quote from a time when the word ‘freedom’ meant something different. I’m really happy with the end results here.
To view an extended gallery of collages created by Ashkan Honarvar, please visit NAILED’s Artist Feature: here.
Ashkan Honarvar was born in 1980 in Shiraz, Iran. At the age of 4 (during Iran-Iraq War) he left Iran with his parents to live in The Netherlands where he grew up. In 2007 he graduated with a BFA in Visual Arts & Communication at The School of Visual Arts, Utrecht, The Netherlands. He received the prestigious Dutch art fund (Fund BKVB) in 2007 and 2009, assisting him to create a personal style, later becoming much more specialized with collage art. To view his portfolio, visit his site here.