After taking artistic inspiration from some of the most poverty-stricken slums in the world, University of Saskatchewan alum Kaid Ashton is giving back to these hard-hit communities.

Ashton, a Saskatoon local, received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2004 and a Bachelor of Education in 2009. Prior to getting the education degree he took some time away from studying and made his first trip to Southeast Asia. He said the place transformed his art.

“It is a very inspirational place where I feel very comfortable roaming the streets, looking for adventure and taking photos of the people and their environment,” said Ashton. “I just felt like Asia was the best location for me to develop my work as a photographer and street artist. It’s a place where I am energized and can find inspiration down the block.”

In February, Ashton returned to the region and began working on an initiative he calls the Homeschool Project.

Established in Manila, Philippines, the Homeschool Project hopes to reach out to children in desperate living conditions and offer them a positive and creative outlet to express themselves.

“[It] is aimed at the children in Manila who either can’t afford to go to school or are unable to attend school for whatever reason. The idea is that I go into the barrios and teach the children of these communities art,” Ashton explained in a blog post about the project.

Ashton says he not only wants to teach children how to create art, but let them know how they can use it to better their entire communities.

“Eventually, the goal is to employ young Filipinos to go and teach art, breakdancing, reading and writing to the children. This will not only create jobs, but provide the children with strong role models who were raised in the same environments,” said Ashton.

Since the project was established in February this year, Ashton has been to over 20 communities, teaching art lessons, taking photographs and providing a meal for the children of the neighborhood at the end of every class.

Ashton was keen to mention that funding for the project has been provided entirely by donation from private contributors and volunteers.

“When I speak of this project, it really is a giant team effort with people who volunteer their time, money, ideas, everything,” he said.

He was also sure to mention the project’s Saskatchewan roots.

“The response from people from North America has been profound, especially from the people from Saskatoon,” he explained through email. “From encouraging emails to financial support to spreading the word about this project, the people from Saskatchewan have been tremendous.”

Despite the difficulties the project faces each day, Ashton pointed out the motivation that drives him to continue with the project.

“The reward from the classes comes when the children discover that they have this ability to express themselves creatively and are able to use art as an outlet to escape their current situation even if it may be for a short time,” Ashton said. “The people really motivated me to try and give something back, something that will have lasting positive implications in these communities.”

While working in the barrios of Manila, Ashton became aware that he could use his experience to promote positive change on a larger scale. He now uses his street art to show the more privileged people of the world something they might otherwise overlook.

“It took 10 or 11 classes for reality to really set in and for me to begin thinking about the bigger picture, which I now realize can be seen on a global level,” he said.

“The classes enabled me to gain access into the various communities and into the lives of the people who lived there.”

In July, Ashton began his second major initiative, The People In Poverty Project, which has him pasting large photographic prints of the people he has met while working in the slums of Southeast Asia in outdoor locations in cities around the world.

As a photographer, Ashton brings a unique approach to his art. Using a technique called “wheatpasting,” he laminates blown up portraits and landscape photographs to unique locations around city streets.

Careful to find just the right location, each image aims to juxtapose the bleak with the beautiful.
Ashton explains, “It isn’t simply just pasting a photo on a wall, its searching the city streets to make the photograph complement the background and use the background to enhance the photo.”

On any given night Ashton may be found pasting an image of a flourishing Saskatchewan forest to adorn the rusted steel walls of a Beijing industrial park or laminating a photo of a 13-year-old Filipino boy to a Christian Dior storefront. Along with the photo, he leaves a caption describing that the boy is collecting garbage from a local dump which he will later sell to make enough money to eat.

“I am simply taking photos and pasting them for people to make their own interpretation and hopefully some will be inspired to think of the bigger picture or even go out and make a positive change,” Ashton said.

“So far, I think that is happening.”

More images of the Homeschool project and the People in Poverty project are available through Ashton’s blog at kaidashton.blogspot.com.