DOWNTIME w/ Ashkan Honarvar

1) Location?

Norway 🇳🇴

2) Years collaging?

I think 15 years

3) What do you love and hate about collage?

I love that the results are instant and also that you change the meaning of an already existing image. What I hate is that it has its limitations and you are greatly dependable of what kind of source material you can find. But to be honest that is also its power and why collage is collage and not painting. It's these restrictions that make me love and hate it :)

4) Biggest influences?

John Heartfield has been a great inspiration and the reason why I started loving collage so much.

5) Analog Vs Digital?

Both are fine and I know people in both fields that create amazing works of collage. But for me, it's definitely analog. Again this has to do with restrictions. when I work I need restrictions and through the years I found out that my work is the strongest when it's handmade.

6) How do you spend your downtime?

Watching movies, I'm a fanatic movie fan. From the arthouse, classics to trashy horror films etc

7) Three tips for someone starting out in collage?

Just start cutting :) even if you don't have an idea just start to cut out shapes and forms. Trust me ideas will emerge. If you spend 10000 hours with collage then you will become an expert. Like every art form, you need materials. And with collage its books and magazines. Get your hand on everything you can find. Ask family, friends, second-hand shops or even libraries (they might throw away their old collections and maybe they could help out a collage artist) Don't just focus on the books that you are sure you will use. It's those books that are the most uninteresting that will help you create an interesting collage. And finally, don't copy yourself over and over again. If you found a nice way to make a collage don't repeat yourself over and over again. Always try to be fresh. a way you could do that is by using a book or magazine for only one or two collage projects.

8) Up and coming shows or projects we should know about?

At the moment I'm participating in a group show in Bruxelles at gallery Art Sablon. And From March 3 till March 23 at gallery Feinkunst Kreuger in Hamburg. This one is also a group show and called The age of collage 2.

Links:

Website: ashkanhonarvar.com
Instagram: @ashkan_honarvar
Behance: behance.net/AshkanHonarvar
Selected prints available at Society6: society6.com/ashkan-honarvar

Artwork Credits: War of the worlds 2019 (handmade collage)