Broken English - Ahilan Ratnamohan

In 2012 Ahilan Ratnamohan moved from Western Sydney to Antwerp, where he has - not completely expectedly - lived for the last 13 years. Inspired by his gradual alienation from Australia, Ahilan attempts to trace the deterioration of his English while grappling with how to translate untranslatable artistic projects.

In this performance, Ahilan draws parallels between invasive plants and invasive words by examining the physical connections between language and our habitat. In doing so he looks at the migrant’s language experience in Australia, the imperial nature of English, the neutralisation of his Australian accent and his daughters’ almost American accents. Broken English slowly introduces different linguistic phenomena which have come to inhabit Ahilan’s psyche. This project is a poetic attempt at archiving language and artistic process. 

Australian performance artist Ahilan Ratnamohan is a polyglot who has the gift of picking up languages quickly. In addition, his past as a professional football player influences the movement practice he uses in his dancing presets. Since 2012 he lives in Antwerp and works throughout Europe, Sri Lanka and Australia. His work has been presented at Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Kaaitheater, Internationales SommerFestival, Kampnagel, Homo Novus, LIFT, Julidans, Monty Kultuurfaktorij, Colomboscope, Zürich Theater Spektakel, among others.

Broken English – progress showing

As a part of Another World Festival

Date and Time: Sunday 16 November, 2-3pm

Location: Utp, Bankstown Arts Centre, 5 Olympic Parade Bankstown NSW

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View the full program of Another World Festival here

Image supplied

PARTNERS AND SUPPORTERS

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, with venue partner, Bankstown Arts Centre.

This project is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW, the Neilson Foundation and City of Canterbury Bankstown.