Aki Sasamoto
Past in a future tense
1 Mar – 20 Apr 2019
39 Walker

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Aki Sasamoto, Past in a future tense, Installation view, Bortolami, Viewing Room, New York, NY, 2019

In Sasamoto’s new sculptural installation, Past in a future tense, the artist has retrofitted the first viewing room with a long oaken bar and cocktail tables. HVAC tubes hang from the ceiling and walls, pushing air through enlarged whiskey bottles. Air flows into blown glass domes, causing whiskey glasses to spin continuously.

In the second viewing room, Sasamoto screens Do Nut Diagram, 2018. Created as a commission for Triple Canopy, and entirely improvised, the backdrop of the video is an idyllic scene of a forest, disrupted by a single object: a donut. An ant begins to explore the donut, signaling the existence of three pieces of tempered glass that separate the viewer from both the background and the donut itself. Sasamoto then draws two circles on the glass with markers, creating a Venn diagram with the donut at its center. The ensuing performance, in which the artist smears donut grease on the glass and subsequently cleans it off, ends with the shattering of the tempered glass, leaving no barriers between the viewer and the forest.

Works

Installation view of displayed artwork titled Past in a future tense, Bar end

Past in a future tense, Bar end, 2019

Installation view of displayed artwork titled Past in a future tense, Table 1

Past in a future tense, Table 1, 2019

Installation view of displayed artwork titled Past in a future tense, Table 2

Past in a future tense, Table 2, 2019

Installation view of displayed artwork titled Do Nut Diagram

Do Nut Diagram, 2018

Press

Mira Dayal Critics’ Picks Artforum Mar 2019