Aki Sasamoto

Aki Sasamoto was born in Kanagawa, Japan, in 1980 and lives and works in Brooklyn.  

Aki Sasamoto’s multidisciplinary practice explores the complexities of human nature through language and movement. She constructs and deconstructs the sometimes-strange ways of living that we find ourselves adopting. She is particularly interested in the everyday—anything that can be transformed and reimagined as an absurd ritual through scripted performances. For each project Sasamoto undertakes meticulous research to determine the medium best suited to expressing her ideas. Her performances demand total physical commitment, sometimes pushing her body to its limits. With performances at the heart of her practice, Sasamoto continually explores connections between knowledge and skill, gesture and intellect, the sensory and the cognitive, and the material and the conceptual, while reflecting on the fundamental nature of artistic creativity.  

Sasamoto was the recipient of the 2023 Calder Prize. For her residency program at Atelier Calder, she returned to her experience of lockdown in New York in 2020, exploring the relationship between enclosed and semi-open spaces, as well as spaces that could be glimpsed through transparent surfaces while remaining closed off. She explored these shifting perceptions and sensations through humor, adapting the project to the scale and architecture of the studio. A Millimetre Difference (2021) was conceived as a complete, multipart work. Its creative process was documented in a film, while the public presentation took the form of a studio visit and filmed interview.