Lingual Anarchy: 바카라�Un-derstanding바카라� The Language Of Gibberish

In her overseas performances such as The Tongue that Won바카라�t Stop Wounding (2015) at New York and UnMansplaining (2019) at Venice Bien­nale, conceptual artist Mithu Sen turns the tab­les on her largely white audiences, to interr­o­gate colonial ideas of subjugation. 바카라�Un바카라� is her chosen prefix, her weapon to un-do/deconstruct/erase languages made dominant by power structures, and in turn, to 바카라�dismantle the hierarchy of privileged input바카라�. 바카라�Unlanguage바카라� is her act of resistance that is impromptu, one-off and meaningless, but empathic. 바카라�It evolved to resist the binds of institutional etiquette and societal rules; and expose how they overpower carefree exchange,바카라� she says, adding, 바카라�바카라�Un바카라� has become my vocabulary, to create and conceptualise, a narrative trope that can fit into any noun, verb or adjective.바카라�

Unlanguage is her definition of 바카라�lingual anarchy바카라�, under an overarching theme of 바카라�radical hospitality바카라�, her quest to offer a guest 바카라�discomfort바카라�. Sen wants to critique power politics and 'unsettle structures that society constructs'. There is no place for censorship or poetic licence in unlanguage. 바카라�I have already created a resistance against censorship in a poetic way, before someone comes to censor me.바카라�  

Think of India, circa 2022: on the one hand, a novel translated from Hindi into English brou­ght India its first International Booker Prize; on the other, there바카라�s a rising chorus in the corrid­ors of power to impose a policy of 바카라�One Nation, One Language바카라�, for giving Hindi the status of rashtra bhasha바카라�which, according to speakers of India바카라�s 22 Scheduled and numerous other languages, does injustice to its rich linguistic diversity, besides going against the Constitution. It바카라�s this aporia where Sen바카라�s unlanguage바카라�unve­i­led 22 years ago at her first show, titled Unbelong­ing바카라�finds relevance.

Sen started writing voraciously from age four in her mother tongue, enamoured by her mother, a Bengali poet. Before she enrolled at Kala Bhavana in Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, the poet had already published a book of poems in her mother tongue. But she suddenly grew interested in 바카라�language politics, power of communication, and what poetry does to our lives바카라�. Her move to Delhi proved personally detrimental, as she struggled to assert her identity as a Bengali poet in the capital. 바카라�I went completely silent for 10 years. I did not write or speak much in Bengali, and in time, 바카라�lost바카라� most of my Bengali words. Still, I thought of myself as a poet, trying to preserve/protect that part inside me.바카라�  

A decade later, she felt the calling of poetry. After one bout of typing at the computer, her habit of looking at her keypad instead of the screen proved costly. A technical error had had her typing in glitches. Adamant to continue, she ended up writing over 100 poems, attempting various structures like concrete poetry and haiku. After every coder she approached failed to 바카라�uncorrupt바카라� these typed out files, she telephoned her publisher in Calcutta, who readily agreed to publish the book, then called her back, befuddled, asking for an 바카라�uncorrupt바카라� version. 바카라�바카라�But I cannot read anything바카라�, he said. I told him, 바카라�You trusted me that I can be a poet, so now I want your validation바카라�.바카라� The incoherent script made way for decade-long experiments under the name No Star, No Land, No Word, No Commitment (2004-14) with entire wall displays of abstract alphabets woven from artificial human hair. Later, audiences were encouraged to interpret their language sounds aloud. Her poetry book evolved into I Am a Poet (2013-14), and was lapped up by a collaborative exhibition between KHOJ and Tate Modern, Lon­don. 바카라�Then, one day in my studio, I started reading the script aloud, as if mimicking a lang­u­age. I decided to not assign any word in my kno­wledge to the script, and created something that sounded like a language with no meaning,바카라� Sen says, on how she arrived at communicating in gibberish.  

 This 바카라�unlanguage바카라� has become fodder for her stellar performance pieces바카라�all unscripted, des­p­ite the entire act being a monologue. People, she says, assume her onstage demeanour is due to the intake of drugs and alcohol, or just living like a tramp. She can come across as 바카라�speaking in ton­gues바카라�바카라�a practice associated with charisma­tic Christians. Sen says she has none of these attri­butes. 바카라�I totally surrender myself to the moment, but don바카라�t lose myself in it either. Rather, I become extra conscious to not repeat a single word, at times physically touch the aud­ience to gauge their reactions, but I am tender with them as both of us are vulnerable with no language to connect us.바카라� She바카라�s had people from the audience come up after a show, and excite­dly identify a word she happened to recite that sounded like a coherent one in their language. 바카라�It shows that people pay attention, and are desperate to find anything that feels familiar.바카라�

She finds the art world jud­gmental. But this is not her ordeal alone, and insists unl­anguage should be viewed as a collective noun. 바카라�An impresario who moves in the rarefied circles of the arts world once told me I can easily hire an English tutor. I replied: 바카라�It바카라�s not just me; but many like me who come to the city and don바카라�t know Eng­lish, suffer and then return바카라�.바카라� A couple of years ago, she wan­ted to title an installat­ion 바카라�lynching바카라�, in the aftermath of the 2015 Dad­ri lynching case. 바카라�I was told by the curator not to use the word, as it might invite 바카라�surveill­a­nce바카라�. So, I called it Unlynching. 바카라�Un바카라� gives a word extra power as people still associate it to the mea­ning attached after un. Unrape. Unmurder. Unhomosexual. Ungay. That is how I self-censor my practice, and at the same time, subvert and sabotage. I am not a social activist, just a trickster.바카라�

With social media, she has found a 바카라�democratic space바카라� to her art practice. Sen has been a serial poster on Instagram for 7-8 years now, and all her cryptic, casual, poetic uploads feel normal, till the singular hashtag 바카라�unworld바카라� gives it a different spin. With #unworld she wants to create a link, instead of the no-brainer route that hash­tags a photo of rain, #rain. #Unworld is her attempt to present an alternative space for every visitor to her page, 바카라�a parallel universe that is not liberating, but which exists바카라�. Sen takes note of the likes and comments coming from stran­g­ers, occasionally sends them a personal mess­age to start a dialogue, in order to view her posts through their lens. On days she바카라�s feeling mischi­evous, a poem on rain will see a random hashtag like #potato next to #unworld.