Exhibitions - Point Reflection
Aki Sasamoto
Point Reflection
12.06.23 – 04.07.24
Installation view, Aki Sasamoto, "Sink or Float", 2023. Image by Hai Zhang.
Please note that the Gallery 1 section of Aki Sasamoto: Point Reflection will be closed to the public from 2:00 pm – 4:15pm on Saturday, April 6.
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Aki Sasamoto: Point Reflection presents a selection of recent works and premieres a new performance by New York-based artist Aki Sasamoto. A unique synthesis of visual art and theatrical performance, Sasamoto’s work engages the banal and universal in human behavior through her eccentric sets of acts and monologues.
Sasamoto’s practice revolves around the idea of changes and phases, predictability and unpredictability in life with wide ranging topics including cravings, laundry, romance, and aging. The exhibition title “point reflection” refers to a mirrored geometric condition where a point on one side is reflected across an axis. This exhibition includes works in which these abstract concepts are “performed” by animated objects serving as stand-ins for the artist: groups of snail shells or whisky tumblers that are air-driven into a frantic spinning motion. Sasamoto meticulously produces and choreographs physical elements and their movements in her installations, weaving layers of meaning through scientific, visual, and linguistic wordplay: what are the connections between the counterclockwise coiling of snail shells and left-handed boxers?; how does a weeklong tornado forecast mirror the ailments in a human body and mind?
With her fascination in evolutionary biology and meteorology, Sasamoto’s work acts as an experimental system of improvisation and repetition. Here, the unsuspected normalities in everyday life undergo rigorous testing giving rise to unlikely metaphors and associations in a structured chaos where familiar turns unfamiliar, and vice versa.
Aki Sasamoto: Point Reflection is organized by Hitomi Iwasaki, Head of Exhibitions/Curator.
Performances (RSVP Required)
Performances of Point Reflection are scheduled for the following dates:
- Dec 15, 7-7:45pm Please note this performance is sold out.
- Jan 21, 3:33-4:18pm Please note this performance is sold out.
- Feb 17, 2:22-3:07pm. Please note this program will be followed by a Q&A with Aki Sasamoto and Hitomi Iwasaki from 3:15-4:00pm.
- Mar 3, 3:33-4:18pm Please note this performance is sold out.
- Apr 6, 3:33-4:18pm Please note this performance is sold out.
Collaborators: Alsarah (Original Music), Madeline Best (Lighting Design), Matt Bauder (Original Music, Video Soundtrack), and Ben Hagari (Cinematography).
Access Resources
- Audio Descriptions
About the Artist
Aki Sasamoto (b. Kanagawa, Japan, 1980) is a New York-based artist working in performance, dance, installation, and video. She has had solo exhibitions and performances at venues including: Arts and Letters, New York (2023); Danspace Project, New York (2020); The Kitchen, New York (2017); and SculptureCenter, Long Island City, New York (2015). Sasamoto has been included in group exhibitions including: 59th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2022); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2022); and Aichi Triennale, Aichi, Japan (2022); Kunsthal Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2022); Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi, India (2016); Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea (2012); Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and Greater New York, MoMA/PS1, Long Island City, New York (2010); and the Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan, among others. She was an artist in residence at Atelier Calder, Saché, France (2021) and is a recipient of the Calder Prize (2023). She is a professor at the Yale School of Art’s Sculpture Department.
Supporters
Aki Sasamoto: Point Reflection is made possible in part by lead support from the Ford Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Japan Foundation, The Kraus Family Foundation, Grace Trust Foundation, Waterfall Arts Foundation, Bortolami Gallery, and Queens Museum Exhibitions Circle.
The Queens Museum is housed in the New York City Building, which is owned by the City of New York.
The Museum is supported, in part, by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with Mayor Eric Adams, the Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, and the New York City Council under the leadership of Speaker Adrienne E. Adams.
Major funding is generously provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Ford Foundation, Hearst Foundations, Jerome Foundation, MacMillan Family Foundation, Mellon Foundation, E.A. Michelson Philanthropy, New York Community Trust, Lambent Foundation, and Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
