Ashkan Honarvar
The saying goes that beauty comes in various sorts and shapes. Even in places least to expect. The human
body is one of many concepts in which beauty can reveal its art. Yet this beauty can also be absent in a cruel
way by the presence of deformations and scars. With this is mind Ashkan Honarvar (1980) is able to show
an undeniable and unavoidable beauty by accepting the darker sides of human body and mind, of which you
rather look away from.
The human body, torn by acts of war, exploited by the sex industry, or as tool for searching for your identity, is
the focus point of the paintings, drawings and collages of Honarvar. Where this fascination of the dark side of
the human existence comes from is something Honarvar tries to define in his art.
The series called ‘Faces’ is Honarvar’s search for an identity and the physical and psychological wounds
brought onto people by war. He used already existing pictures of young soldiers who suffered from mutila-
tions to their faces during first world war. The way the soldier looks into the camera, dominant yet sensible
and vulnerable, is highly confronting. With fierce strokes or graceful lines and shapes Honarvar draws onto
the tortured face of the soldier. He focuses on their mutilations by highlighting with stripes and strokes what
doesn’t compute with the later restored face. It seems he is trying to reconstruct the suffering the soldier had
to endure.
His sketches, made with black ink, called ‘Lines’ continue his research of distortion of the human body. A
complex set of black lines shows shapes; human and animal. These images seem to display the “subcon-
scious”. For example, by showing muscles and organs in every figure. Undefined feelings are portrait by a
bundling of grasping hands.
Besides these drawings, there is also a series of collages called ‘Finding Hitler’. With surgical precision Ho-
narvar carves images out of wounded bodies. He combines this with the innocence of a newborn baby and
flowers. With these collages Honarvar is on a quest to find the universal symbol of evil, which is routed in
every human being.
Not only is he an illustrator and sketch artist, Honarvar also makes paintings. The series of paintings ‘Blank’
shows portraits of Western models that he combines with images of the wounds and suffering of people that
died in Iran. In this way he mixes the current state of Iran with Western phenomena.
The models are hard to recognize in the portraits. The colour of their skin is the one of a dead person. Just
like the blank stare in their eyes. The traces of blood and wounds that are visible in their faces do not come
across as offensive. Probably this has to do with the posture the people are in. Not hunched in like a victim
but standing like a proud model, these people pose on canvas.
The art of Ashkan Honarvar is in essence ambivalent. On one hand there is the severity of the subject, wheth-
er an image is too shocking, on the other hand there is a macabre beauty in his work that intrigues extremely
and motivates to keep looking.
You know that you are looking at something significant of which you want to divert your eyes from, yet the
colours of the painted skin, the criss-cross of black lines in which there is so much to see, or simply the look
of a deformed soldier, captivates you while letting these images sink in.
With a pen like a scalpel and creativity as his tool Honarvar gives a beautiful view of the darker sides of hu-
manity, which we would rather like to avoid.
The word Ubakagi is a Congolese word for cutting meat from a dead animal. This term is also used for raped women. A surviving rape victim automatically falls down the order of rank, and ends up lower than an animal. She gets’ banished by her family and the community. Rape has been used as a weapon of war during the different conflicts that take place in Congo. Using rape is an efficient way of offending and humiliating the opposition. Black magic also plays a role in the use of rape. Believing that the ashes of female reproductive organs have a magical power when used for tattoos, the rape offenders could kill and mutilate the victims after raping them. In most contexts the phallus is a symbol of fertility. Ashkan Honarvar changes the symbol to an equipment of abuse of power. Exploring the relation between the offender and power Ashkan Honarvar, researches many different facets; the animal-like behaviour of the rape offenders, the colonial history, the system and rituals of how the rapes where executed & the effects of the act on both offender & victim after the conflict has ended.
Meat
A dilemma typical for this time we are living in is the knowledge of the origin of products. For example the bio-industries production of meat. Ashkan Honarvar has linked this subject to the porn industries, and makes an interpretation of the women as products. The pictures of meat take the upper hand of the women in this series collages. They become nothing but meat, and lose their identity. The body’s get dismantled, but some parts stay intact. Anonymous hands grabbing the flesh of the women, making her private parts visible, represent the industries. The parts of the girl’s face that are still visible show enjoyment and some of them childish features. A big contrast to the flesh witch gives the collages an uncomfortable first impression.
Faces
The series called ‘Faces’ is Ashkan Honarvar’s search for an identity and the physical and psychological wounds brought onto people by war. Ashkan Honarvar used already existing pictures of young soldiers who suffered from mutilations to their faces during First World War. The way the soldier looks into the camera, dominant yet sensible and vulnerable, is highly confronting.
