Aki Sasamoto: Point Reflection presents a selection of recent works including Sink or Float (2022) and premieres a series of performances. Sasamoto’s practice is a unique synthesis of visual art and theatrical performance, engaging the banal and universal in human behavior through idiosyncratic sets of act and monologue.

Originally created for the 2022 Venice Biennale, Sink or Float is an installation that features a large number of snail shells that are put in motion driven by the air-table technology in the assortment of commercial kitchen furniture. Among them is a set of whiteboards with the artist’s handwriting that read: “When do you decide to go the other way?” The exhibition also includes Past in a future tense (2019) which centers air-driven kinetic movements of hand blown whiskey bottles in a sports bar setting composed of a wooden counter, cocktail tables, and overhead TV monitors. Through these frantically spinning shells and whisky glasses, Sasamoto choreographs a meticulously organized chaos, with hints of science experiments. 

Sasamoto’s work addresses the unquestioned “normalities” in the various corners of our everyday psyche. From craving alcohol and doing laundry to more ineffable human impulses around romance or weather forecasts, she acts along absurdist narratives that occur, unfold, and playfully interconnect. Informed by her background in mathematics and dance, Sasamoto’s methodically constructed cosmos questions our perceptions of the ordinary, normal, or familiar.

Aki Sasamoto: Point Reflection is organized by Hitomi Iwasaki, Head of Exhibitions/Curator.

The schedule for a series of performances will be announced.

About the Artist

Aki Sasamoto (b. 1980, Kanagawa, Japan) 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 currently an Assistant Professor at the Yale School of Art’s Sculpture Department.