at the end of the sentence, it rotted

At times forgetting what has been constructed as my native tongue and as such being unable to speak with loved ones, I question the concept of a mother tongue
as a political construct. I reflect upon the diasporic conditions of language; how language at times excludes when people migrate from one country and native tongue to another.

Looking upon a history of constructed languages and seeing language as a territory of power structures, the installation consists of abstractions of writing systems that through asemics speculate on alternative ways of languaging - and what it means to be unable to speak. As an outsider of a language, any written or spoken words are purely strokes and phonetics; an asemic relation, when you are unable to grasp the meaning of words.

As water is pumped in and reverses after 8 hours, the installation builds an environment to transform language into decay. As the rust builds up and biomaterial decays, the image is constantly transformed. A live soundscape is programmed as an ecosystem, which sonifies the writing strokes and reproduce them similarly to mold.

When language ends up excluding and including depending on who does and who does not speak,  at the end of the sentence, it rotted  searches for a language that includes all. Through bio-asemic rust and decay, it presents a living image that defies categorization by being in constant motion. It’s a return to a time of pre-linguistics, where sound and touch are prominent. To return to a time before words became the dominant way of communicating.


Sound design by Andrejs Poikāns.
Website designed by Aliona Ciobanu.
Leaflet designed by Trang Hà.
Description plate designed by Sankrit Kulmanochawong.