Art, Wit and a Twist
Alethea Tan
A ‘LIL TWISTED with a dash ‘o wit, 26-year-old Amsyar Ashaary’s art has certainly graduated from the doodles that he used to fill his classmates’ textbooks with (smart boy never doodled on his own, hah!).
Born from the idea of mixing collages, Kolarge evolves around the possibility of creating new dimensions of art that is “larger than life”.
Anyone viewing a collage by Amsyar is sure to wonder about what actually goes through that beautiful mind of his that creates such wonderfully quirky yet deviously dark artwork. “The inspiration behind my work is my own personal experiences as well as others', my inner thoughts and some meaningless dreams even,” Amsyar explains.
My love for vintage materials and thriller reads and movies might also subconsciously contribute to the look and feel of my artworks.
ARTIFICIAL INTERACTION:
"In the age of social media, we’re living in a world of unreliable 'faceless' interaction" - Amsyar Ashaary
VULNERABILITY:
"Regardless of social class, mankind are vulnerable." -Amsyar Ashaary
Some of his art pieces can also be seen as reflections of how he views life as well. Vulnerability (pictured left) is to Amsyar, all about conveying the trait of humility. “No matter how well you are doing at the moment, you’re still vulnerable to failure," he explained. "Therefore, this piece serves as a timely reminder for myself and others to stay humble in good and bad times.”
He also feels that sometimes art leaves a bigger impact on people as opposed to words as it tells a story and forms a connection between the viewer and the art piece. “You won’t get this kind of attachment from a straight-up typographic poster that says ‘Be Humble’,” said Amsyar, laughing.
Apart from building connections, Amsyar enjoys finishing his artwork with an air of mystery. He believes that this encourages the audience to take part in the meaning-making process. “The artworks [do not] show viewers directly what the message is, but rather it’ll leaves viewers with more questions than answers,” Amsyar muses.
That’s the beauty of it, everyone is entitled to their own opinions and interpretations.
Transforming visual images from his head into art is already a challenging feat in its own right so why break them down further into collages? Some might call it crazy, but the challenge is what drives Amsyar. “At times you might be limited to the rigidity of the images you have – but that’s when it gets more interesting!”
It also gives me a sense of satisfaction getting the honour to give old found images a new breed of life.
GROWING UP:
"I think as a child you're always drawing and doing crafts, and that is totally normal and it seems to be like what you do as a kid. Kinda a weird tragedy is that when you become an adult, you "grow up" and lose that, and stop creating; you stop involving yourself with the joy of colouring and creation and I just feel like I'm lucky enough to never really lose that." —Beautiful Losers
Currently pursuing a bachelor in Design Communications in LASALLE College of the Arts, Amsyar said that his artistic journey really only began when he enrolled himself into LASALLE.
An awesome place to be in where people from various disciplines just get together, collaborate and create stuff. There, you’re exposed to crazy ideas (and people) and you’ll naturally fall into whichever route that entices you.
Amsyar attributes his inspiration to also come from some of his favourite artists such as Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Julien Pacaud and Randy Mora, as well as the passing of his late grandmother.
The passing of his late grandmother had taught him one of life’s greatest lessons; never to take things for granted and to cherish every single moment of this precious life.
AMSYAR ASHAARY'S SELF-PORTRAIT
AMSYAR ASHAARY'S SELF-PORTAIT
"It was so sudden that thinking back, there’s so many things left to say and do but I never got the chance to," he lamented.
Sometimes we’re moving a little too fast in life that all these little things get overlooked.
Readers can stay on top of Amsyar's work at his website and purchase his prints or postcards at his web store.
