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.
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.
Asha Zero's work has been linked to Trompe-l'œil a painting style that employs illusion to deceive the eye into believing that the depicted object exists in three dimensions, thereby effecting a moment of wonder when the viewer discovers the deception.
