Art Reviews
Interview - Asia Alfasi
19/02/16
Asia Alfasi is a Manga comic book artist from Birmingham with a mixed heritage of Scottish, Libyan, Muslim and English roots. She's got an exhibition at Norwich Arts Centre coming up plus she's doing a talk and Q & A on 24th February at the very same place as part of SPIEL. We had a chat to find out more about this super cool artist.
You have an upcoming exhibition at Norwich Arts centre: Baseerah – Journey to Sight. What has inspired you in creating this exhibition and what do you hope to relay to your audience in these works?
One of the most intriguing things about the rise of Manga was the period of time in which it flourished - namely the direct aftermath of World War 2, with Japan having tasted devastating defeat. Osamu Tezuka, the "Godfather of Manga" addressed many things about the war and Atomic bombs through philosophical and adventure manga. With the political and social landscape, being what it is today. I decided to take a leaf out of Osamu Tezuka's book and turn my fears, hopes and dreams of THIS era into a philosophical adventure Manga. The exhibition will be the opening chapter of the series.
How do you feel your personal experiences of observing varying cultures has helped to inform your work?
Very much so. If anything, the underpinning theme to the story is the inevitability of varying cultures and points of view pulling together in order to not only advance but survive. I have been extremely privileged in having grown up experiencing seemingly irreconcilable cultures, if current hype is to be believed. To have your beliefs and worldviews challenged and questioned ultimately leads to widening of horizons; and it's my hope that readers and visitors will take that message away with them after visiting the exhibition.
Do you think people’s own perceptions affect their own judgement and experiences? How do you think this affects the world of racial segregation and cultural blending?
Most definitely, without a shadow of a doubt. Although perhaps the phrasing could also be juggled into - one's own experiences are the ones affecting judgments and perceptions. And ultimately, the more you allow yourself to be present outside of your comfort zone and open up to varying experiences and people, the richer and more informed your views and perceptions become. It's all a matter of perspective. Three-point perspective will always have more depth than the flat one point.
You have spent a lot of time in Birmingham, do you feel your time there inspired any of the content of you work?
I absolutely adore Birmingham thoroughly, and it's, without contest, my favourite city in the UK. The tapestry of different cultures, people and voices that make up the city was to what make me feel that I could call myself "British"; without that compromising any aspect of myself. The way the city comes together seamlessly in a fusion of art, cuisine and community has always been an inspiration to me. I've met a wide variety of people, watching as the city matures and flowers into the current hub of arts that it is today. An in-progress other manga I'm working on right now takes place in a Birmingham school setting, so, I hope readers will look out for that soon.
What is it that first inspired you to become a comic artist and writer? Did you have a favourite comic that you read when growing up?
I spent the first 7 years of my life in Trioli, Libya. There, and across the Arab World at the time as a whole, they exclusively aired arabic-dubbed Japanese Anime. The anime that was chosen for dubbing was largely the Japanese "world theatre” set of animated series based on literary classics such as Anne of Green Gables, Les Miserables, and Tom Sawyer. We travelled with our imaginations across the globe through those stories and I had NO idea that they were not Arab. That's why I was shocked upon arriving in Scotland at age 8 - along with the language and culture barrier- to have nothing that I could pick up and show to say, "Here, this is from my culture.” So I decided to create the very stories and hopefully beautiful illustrations that I would have been proud to show as a child back in school in Scotland.
You were the first woman to participate in and win the Hi8us Midlands Strip-search competition. Have you found it less common for women to work within the comic industry and do you feel it is harder for them at all, or that you have had any personal difficulties in your career based on your gender?
I recall the first time I visited a comic con in 2004; it was I believe the only annual comic event in the UK at the time, and took place in Bristol. There were hardly any women present, let alone women of colour. However, I've received a massive amount of support and backing, both from professionals in the field and fans alike. It seems that there has been a huge thirst for different voices to join in the comic crescendo and that has been happening. Manga started to really make its way into the mainstream here in the UK around that time, and now, if you go to any convention, the rate is almost at 50% male/female visitors; and you're just as likely to find female comic artists as male in the comic villages of those events.The stigma of women in comics and it not being a thing has largely become a factually debunked myth and I daresay we're almost entering a golden age!
“Some spend their whole lives content with their one eye. Others lead paths that open consecutively more" is a quote taken from the statement for your pieces. How do you believe these changes in paths happen? Moreover, what effect do you feel it has upon society and the individual?
This touches and slightly overlaps with the question earlier; and I believe opening oneself up to experiences, mingling with different people, ideas and situations humanises them and forces a state of self-reflection. For myself personally, I recall instances where that has happened to me in a startling self-realisation - namely when first placed outside of my own culture as a Libyan kid in a Scottish school (and later on English college and university) and with the onset of the internet. The excitement and hype of being able to speak to Anyone at all from varying corners of the world. I had my own prejudices and meeting people who represented those very same cultures or issues I'd held a contemptuous view of ... struck me speechless. It humanised and put into perspective the repercussions of such negative thoughts because now, they were no longer just abstract. They had human faces, names, feelings, histories, humour ... humanness. I wish to condense those realisations into an engaging story format.
Many have described your work as being an amalgamation of influences from Islamic, Libyan, British and Japanese traditions. How have each inspired you and in what ways have you learnt from these different exposures and how do you use it in your work?
That is a huge question. It's hard to pin down exactly, after a while, which parts of you are partitioned in exactly which way. The lines blur and the borders become less so. The Libyan part of me is very much present and strong; and is very much unapologetically Arab. That's why I believe it crucial to weave in the flavours of Libya and the Arab world into my work as I've seldom come across manga or comics (or popular film or otherwise) that shows Arabness in any way that I have grown up with and experienced. The only aspects shown are ever so narrow and shallow as to be laughable. When I recall as a child the pure excitement my siblings and I felt whilst watching Back to the Future where Doc screams "THE LIBYAAAANS!" as they broke through the scene as the terrorists that then killed him… it makes me smile sadly. That we were so desperate for ANY representation that we were proud we existed even for a couple of minutes in a movie as terrorists. Libya is RICH in its history, culture and humour, and I fully intend on showing that in many subsequent works in shallah.
Catch Asia's talk at SPIEL at Norwich Arts Centre on 24th February at 20:00. Pay what you can.