This collage was created live on Brick Lane, a vibrant street area celebrated for its street art and graffiti culture.

As part of my Plastic Garden Project, I met Ashiq The Rockstar, a Pakistani laborer working in Dubai, and I was deeply inspired by his story, and I crafted this collage piece from his original portrait from the series Plastic Garden. His piece debuted at an exhibition in Dubai Design District, where Ashiq himself visited and posed proudly in front of the iconic 1.5-meter artwork. The portrait gained significant media attention, later appearing in Harper’s Bazaar UK, Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, The National, and more.

The collage incorporates pages from vintage magazines that I found while exploring London’s thrift stores and my friend’s Kiko apartment, who introduced me to Vivienne.
While I was carefully assembling this collage with Ashiq’s black-and-white portrait,  the work took on a life of its own, remaining on the busy Brick Lane graffiti wall for five months before being covered by other artists's works.

I believe its longevity stems from the reverence it inspires. As one admirer put it: “The presence Ashiq The Rockstar emits through his gaze is just too powerful to take down.”