A panel with embedded shoji screens, a front door, a shutter: all of these are actual architectural fittings, but closer inspection reveals that there are items such as fishing lures and sponges hidden between the double shoji screens, and the door has many more peepholes than necessary. On the other side of the shutter is nothing one might expect to find, such as a car or a store interior. These seemingly realistic yet ultimately dead-end portals, akin to a theatrical set, are “pure entrances and exits” that give tangible form to the concept of access (and its [im]possibility), lay bare interiors and exteriors, and symbolically invert meanings. They function as a stage set for Sasamoto Aki’s new installation/performance work Squirrel Ways: Thickness of Borders (2022).

Sasamoto is interested in daily habits that manifest the psychology and personality of the individual, and has incorporated everyday practices and gestures into her works. This piece hints at the human desire to draw lines demarcating territory and questions the basis of internal and external boundaries, while at the same time evoking the opening up and closing off of communication. It also illuminates the reality of the many systemic restrictions placed on our bodies and our mobility. Under current circumstances, with our movement restricted by a pandemic and wars, the innate drive to relocate and enter another phase of life, even at the risk of our lives, is all the more poignant.

Sasamoto moved to the UK as a teenager, and later studied art, dance, and sculpture in the US. In addition to a solo exhibition at SculptureCenter in New York in 2016, she has participated in the 2010 Whitney Biennial (New York), and the 59th Venice Biennale (2022). The current work can be linked to the lineage of such works as Marcel Duchamp’s posthumous Étant donnés (1946-1966), which employs a door and a peephole; Robert Rauschenberg’s Solstice (1968), which draws attention to the generation of images by allowing the viewer to physically pass through the work; and the work of Murakami Saburo, a member of the crucially important postwar Japanese avant-garde art group Gutai.

Selected Works & Awards

2022

59th Venice Biennale, Italy

2018

Travelers: Stepping into the Unknown– NMAO’s 40th Anniversary Exhibition, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan

2016

Delicate Cycle (solo), SculptureCenter, New York, USA

2010

Whitney Biennial 2010, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA

Exhibition

• Installation view/Performance at Aichi Triennale 2022
• Squirrel Ways: Thickness of Border, 2022
• Photo: ToLoLo studio