“2024 West Space Commission”
Akil Ahamat
16 Nov → 18 Jan 2025
West Space is proud to present new work by Akil Ahamat as the second in our 2024 Commission series.
Akil Ahamat is a Sri Lankan Malay artist, filmmaker and arts worker. Akil’s work across video, sound, performance and installation considers the physical and social isolation of online experience and its effects in configuring contemporary subjectivity. Among their research influences, Akil draw especially on the use of ASMR in online spaces as a self-administered therapeutic tool, translating its restorative effects into intimate audio experiences.
James Nguyen (West Space Artist Committee) says,
“Akil Ahamat is an artist whose works continue to be incredibly sensitive and moving. Creating a new body of work on ‘slow cinema for short attention spans,’ Akil has proposed a compelling multichannel installation that will reshape the viewers’ experience of cinema and stillness.
Akil was a standout in an incredibly strong field of contemporary practice and innovative thinking. We are excited to see how the West Space 2024 Commission and our audiences can support this brilliant artist.”
Akil Ahamat’s work across video, sound, performance, installation and games considers the physical and social isolation of online experience and its effects in configuring contemporary subjectivity. Driven particularly by their research into the use of ASMR in online spaces as a self-administered therapeutic tool, Akil translates its restorative effects into intimate audio experiences in the public space of the gallery.