Aki Sasamoto, judgmental hopper

[imomus]

Aki Sasamoto -- a performance artist and dancer, born in Japan but educated at Wesleyan and Columbia -- is the kind of figure I'd probably have to invent if she didn't exist. In her performances she's used potatoes as percussion instruments, supped with the devil with a long spoon (actually, a very long knife), smashed three hundred dishes to powder, collected discarded furniture, divined people's habits from their polythene bag collections, stuffed clothes down her clothes, scrubbed up suds while making conversation with no-one in particular, delivered lectures, cooked pasta in the sky, and made the perfect sauce while wearing a wallpaper apron.



Despite the domestic sound of some of these activities, Aki feels her brain is rather male. "Since I do not own an urge to express my femininity," she says, "and since I feel as though I think more like male (What does this mean?), it surprises me when they talk about femaleness with what I produce... I may appear more feminine than I think. I have masculine purpose in me who wants to converse with my outward femininity. My skin is a line between such sexual divisions. In performing, I balance right on my skin."

Aki only graduated from her MFA degree at Columbia in 2007, but was already selected for the Yokohama Triennale in 2008. Here she is (courtesy Tokyo Art Beat) talking about her performance there:

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Sasamoto reminds me of a composite, better-organised version of various Japanese art student and musician friends who ended up in New York. Where some others foundered, Sasamoto seems to be succeeding, winning grants, prizes and prestigious showcases at places like the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin. One reason she's doing so well is that she's full of good ideas, and personable. Another is that she works very hard -- even while pulling art world performances together, Aki is appearing in, and co-choreographing dance performances with her friend Yvonne Meier. Finally, Aki is very aware of the power of collectives; she's a member of two artists' groups, Lower Lights and Culture Push.



Aki says something very interesting in an interview, something about the relationship between being an expatriate and being judgmental. (Aki wants to encourage judgmentalism.) "More and more expatriates," she explains, "tend to be what I call Hoppers. Those who are aware of crossing borders of any kind seem to be more judgmental."

But if they're inwardly judgmental, these expats master an outward conformity, a kind of Zelig-like quality: "They are also experts in blurring differences, to mask the consequences of their judgments. As a survival technique, Hoppers fool themselves to ignore gaps, or believe in mingling as the most natural, or even embrace characteristics, while positioning themselves out of such horizontal references... Whatever the resulting attitude is, border crossers face the choice of how to locate themselves in relation to sets of plural realities and values. This is the consequence of hopping-around. Being an expatriate is not the only method of hopping-around. But it seems to be an easy category in these days. This is what I mean by Hoppers."

This culture-hopping judgmentalism informs the performance Aki gave at ExitArt in New York in March 2007, which involved "bungee potatoes":

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Comments

A pedestrian question

[rurritable.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

The long distance slicing of potatoes requires an attenuated blade. Does she use a peening hammer to develop the cutting edge, or waterstones?
I've found that hammering the blade produces an edge that will cut very fine slices in vegetables, but is dull enough to alert you to possible finger dislocation.

[(Anonymous)]

I've found people have a hard time distinguishing judgemental (postive) from prejudgemental (negative).

[bonsai-human.livejournal.com]

I have masculine purpose in me who wants to converse with my outward femininity. My skin is a line between such sexual divisions. In performing, I balance right on my skin.

Reading this, I feel the need to pinpoint the moment when art ceased to be about creating beautiful things and started to become a competition between artists to see who could emit the greatest number of steaming bollocks from their mouth.

Jesu...

[(Anonymous)]

When was art about "creating beautiful things"?

[bonsai-human.livejournal.com]

When was it not, anonymous?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Personally, I find a woman's skin (animated qua cultural locus in a performance) one of the most beautiful things in the world. But I may be biased.

[bonsai-human.livejournal.com]

I think I've been slightly misunderstood.

I haven't experienced her art, and it may be amazing for all I know. And yes, the look of a woman's skin can be part of an artist's expression. I don't disagree with that.

What I take issue with is the way in which artists talk about their art. They swamp the artwork itself (and alienate many) by talking complete and utter nonsense. Unless the talk is part of the work itself, it is unnecessary and distracting. It's pseudo-intellectual and as such, quite embarrassing.

I don't want to have art explained to me, and if it needs to be explained, surely it undermines the purpose of art which is in my (admittedly subjective) view to engage with an audience and generate an raw emotional reaction.

But as Dan Treacy asked "Is It Art, Darling?"

[(Anonymous)]

I agree with the above caller. As Momus inadvertently pointed out, those who more often than not attain some sort of fleeting fame in the bite sized world of contemporary art are: 1. diligent students with the ability to fill thirty page funding applications with academic art sprek (as exemplified above). 2. photogenic flower children guaranteed not to be sick on the shoes of the boss at the annual Xmas dinner. That means career in the biz for dyslexics, the Amish, first time heroin users and those infected with nematode parasites... out the back door of the Tate with them, along with the rest of the moldy potatoes. But I'll tell you what, as one who works in the "industry", as a technical casualty underwriter (look it up) specialised in the art market, the really scary thing about these "artistes" is that they actually BELIEVE what they are saying and doing. It seems a bit of a trite remark... but next time you are the presence of one of these creatures please engage them in a conversation, you will be chilled to the bone, I jest you not.

[krskrft.livejournal.com]

"I balance right on my skin" is quite an excellent turn of phrase. Sounds like poetry to me. Isn't poetry art?

Re: But as Dan Treacy asked "Is It Art, Darling?"

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I could have a perfectly wonderful conversation with Aki Sasamoto -- after all, I'm an ex-New York expat and occasional performance artist myself. I can do that talk, and I find that talk interesting and vital. It's all the other types of talk in the world that depress me, quite frankly. You know, some idiot in The Guardian detracting from Burroughs, Jarman, Beuys and Pinter all in the same article (http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2009/jan/05/william-burroughs-royal-academy-art).

[bonsai-human.livejournal.com]

It's a clumsy and barely coherent turn of phrase, and she intended for it to be poetry, she should give up poetry.

[krskrft.livejournal.com]

Actually, no. It's a pretty great turn of phrase, and it works perfectly as poetry. So there.

Re: But as Dan Treacy asked "Is It Art, Darling?"

[bonsai-human.livejournal.com]

Oh dear.

[bonsai-human.livejournal.com]

I guess this is my cue to poke my tongue out.

But I'd prefer to agree to disagree.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

English isn't Aki's first language, of course, but her core idea here is an elegant and powerful one: she feels inwardly male but looks outwardly female, therefore she has focused on her skin -- the membrane dividing inner from outer -- as the locus of this contradiction.

Re: But as Dan Treacy asked "Is It Art, Darling?"

[krskrft.livejournal.com]

I love how there's not a real word said in that article about why Burroughs doesn't cut the critical mustard. Is that a British thing or what? I don't hear many people calling Burroughs out stateside.

Re: But as Dan Treacy asked "Is It Art, Darling?"

[(Anonymous)]

You didn't read that article very carefully. Actually he says Beuys is a genius, and it's too soon to tell whether Pinter is. The point he makes about Burroughs, whether you agree with it or not, is hardly a philistine one. He's saying he's not as good as Pynchon!

[fishwithissues.livejournal.com]

A lot of people who went to Wesleyan make good artthings happen. I don't know what it is and I went there. RISD also. And schools with a lot of ideas and looking.

[krskrft.livejournal.com]

I think that's why the statement has so much power. People who speak English as a second language tend to have gaps spread out through their understanding of the language, and it is the dancing around those gaps that can often create some of the most beautiful turns of phrase.

[krskrft.livejournal.com]

They also produce a lot of shmucks. I lived in the region for a large part of my life (within an hour of both places). Of course, I've hated most of the art students I've met. Not all, but most. I hate drama students even more, though. Compared to drama kids, art students are top shelf.

Re: But as Dan Treacy asked "Is It Art, Darling?"

[krskrft.livejournal.com]

Actually, thinking about this, I guess maybe the reason why the Brits don't like Burroughs is because he doesn't really say much of anything to them? There's a veritable laundry list of American authors and artists who've been influenced heavily by him, but I can't imagine a single Brit of note who'd want anything to do with the old codger.

Re: But as Dan Treacy asked "Is It Art, Darling?"

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I didn't say he was being philistine. The main thrust of his article is against artists who have a strong persona, a recognisable voice or garb or presence. It's like the rockist argument that "the music's all that matters, man". And he invokes not just disembodiment but timelessness as measures of artistic quality, with the artist's physical death as an important first step. I completely disagree with all this. Burroughs' voice and Beuys' clothes and presence were vital and key while they were alive, but also endure after they're dead.

Jones then praises Damien fucking Hirst. Case closed.

Re: But as Dan Treacy asked "Is It Art, Darling?"

[(Anonymous)]

How about Martin Amis, Will Self and JG Burroughs, just for starters? Not to mention David Bowie and about dozen other art rockers who used Burroughs cut-ups.

Re: But as Dan Treacy asked "Is It Art, Darling?"

[(Anonymous)]

(JG Ballard I meant)

[imomus.livejournal.com]

It's worth saying that the other insight of hers I quote -- about being inwardly judgmental and outwardly conformist -- also puts the boundary between two contradictory states at skin level. It's obviously a very productive way of relating cultural issues to the body.