Akil Ahamat, Sarah Rodigari and Sebastian Henry-Jones
“Extinguishing Hope Conversation”
During the opening for Extinguishing Hope, Akil Ahamat was joined for a conversation with collaborator Sarah Rodigari, led by exhibition curator Sebastian Henry-Jones. They reflected on the making the work, and traced the themes and their evolution across Akil's practice.
Expressed across film and sound, Extinguishing Hope sees Akil Ahamat explore a fraught, fictional and interspecies relationship with a snail, a recurring character in their work that embodies broader ideas of truth, navigation, and escape.
Drawing from Islamic theology, philosophy and the poetry of language and speech, at the core of Extinguishing Hope is the question, how do we find our way in the dark?
Listen in.
Extinguishing Hope is a West Space Commission, supported by Creative Australia and presented in partnership with UTS Gallery, Sydney. This conversation took place at West Space, Collingwood Yards, on 16 November 2024.
Akil Ahamat is a Sri Lankan Malay artist and filmmaker currently based on Gadigal Country. In their work, they animate the non-human in order to talk to it. In the crinkles and whispers of these conversations, shapes of the inhuman forces that govern our lives emerge, as well as our relationships to them.
Sarah Rodigari is an artist whose practice addresses the social and political potential of art. Sarah's work is site responsive, employing, durational live action, improvisation, and dialogical methodologies to produce text-based performance and installations.
Sebastian Henry-Jones is the Curator at West Space. His curatorial approach is led by an interest in DIY thinking, and situated in the context provided by the gentrification of Sydney and Melbourne’s cultural landscapes.