Asif Shaikh

Asif Shaikh is a text-based digital collage artist and documentary photographer who has exhibited in the United Kingdom. His exhibitions have included Future Foundry in Dover, University for the Creative Arts in Canterbury, and Fox Yard Studio in Stowmarket. Asif has a background in Architecture and Visual Communication. 

The multidisciplinary works of Asif Shaikh deal with important sociological themes such as environmental pollution and the importance of ecology, as a result, he refers to his portfolio as the TRAsh series. From documentary photography capturing motion-filled birds amidst bodies of water and scenes of civilization interacting with natural landscapes to digital collages which behave like memes, Asif shares visual and typographical information on the unsustainable amount of pollution dumped into the ocean and lack of recycling amongst citizens and nations. Assembled similar to a movie or theatre poster, these digital collages are often monochromatic, but the artist breaks the continuity with texts in bright colors or contrasting colored trash against black-and-white backgrounds. Such a visual dichotomy between visual harmony to highlighting relevant information regarding sustainment of environments reveals works of art with a deep sense of purpose towards altering destructive collective behavior against nature and for the sake of our health. 

The works of Asif Shaikh reconsider discarded materials as artifacts of history with intrinsic value towards metaphorical emotional impulses. In essence, his art reevaluates waste not as an endpoint, but rather as a continuation of reconstruction by creating visual forms interpreting consumption, attachment, and sustainability. In the documentary photography, themes on ecological sustainment is more indirect in contrast to the impact within the digital collages. These documentative images specifically capture civilizational harmony with nature, such as a row of small boats on the shoreline amidst high contrast or a swimmer within the deep ends of the ocean, cropped with no skyline above. The variety in Asif Shaikh’s portfolio reveals an artist who uses both captured and manipulated imagery to consistently highlight the destructive and careless nature of humanity as well as the importance of sustaining the harmony of nature for future generations, for the earth’s creatures, and for our collective health. 

Five Million Every Week (pictured above) is an example of the environmental sustainment messaging by Asif Shaikh. Assembled much like a meme or theatrical poster, the image highlights a bench (as if we are ‘sitting’ down doing nothing) with pieces of debris from vape devices extending across the composition, as if slithering across the image in contrasting colors amidst the monochromatic surface to highlight the dangers of mass-disposal of these unhealthy and toxic substances. 

With a sense of visual communication and typographical prowess, the text-based and documentative multi-disciplinary works of Asif Shaikh reveal how image-making can be manipulated towards purpose-driven narratives which can have a positive impact. In consideration of our collective health, the welfare of the earth’s creatures, and respect for the rights of nature, Asif Shaikh creates deeply purposeful messaging, both directly and indirectly, to implore us to change our collective behavior. In essence, he is much a poet-philosopher as he is a visual artist, as he recognizes the sociological impact of unproductive collective behavior towards mother nature. These impactful works reveal a dichotomy between using visual elements for purposeful advantage towards sustainment and manipulating aesthetics and design elements to have a far deeper function than surface commercial appeal. Asif Shaikh uses visual traits strategically in a sociological manner, rather than for a non-layered veneer.

Written by Michael Hanna, Editor of Point Pleasant Publishing.

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