WEBVTT

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[Wrong happy hour, 10am–6pm]

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["An Artist Walks into a Bar"]

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[AKI SASAMOTO]
I got a kidney condition.

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The doctor stopped me from drinking,

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for three months or so.

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By the time three months was up,
I found out I was pregnant.

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[Aki Sasamoto, Artist]

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So I couldn't drink nine more months,

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and I was going crazy.

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I realized I should just
make a project about this

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and trying to fill that time.

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[LAUGHS]

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--Can I have some glasses?

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[PAU ATELA]
--Sure.

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[SASAMOTO]
This one makes a really good sound.

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My inspiration comes from my daily life,
I guess.

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--Nobody knows

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["Delicate Cycle," 2016]

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--what "permanent press" really means.

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--Can I have a napkin, too?

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[ATELA]
--Mmmhmm.

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[SASAMOTO]
Sometimes I go to the bar

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and then I get a whole piece from there.

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I made this piece called "Wrong Happy Hour."

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["Wrong Happy Hour," 2014]

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The whole premise of the performance

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was to push all these beer bottles
off this bar.

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I connected that with tossing
all the people in my life romantically.

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So once that juxtaposition worked for me,

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I realized I have to push every bottle
and every people at the same time.

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[SOUND OF GLASS BOTTLES CLANKING]

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[MAN]
You staying?

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[SASAMOTO, OFF SCREEN]
--Get out!

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[CROWD CHEERS]

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--Go away!

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That was about loneliness and romance

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and looking for...

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["Idea"]
["Us"]

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...a tool to pop this.

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Do you have an ice pick?

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[ATELA]
Yeah.

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When I was in India,
I was making a piece

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and I was just thinking about
my teenage friend

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who I lost

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for the death.

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And then I came across to
an ice seller on the street.

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He told me the first thing they do
when somebody dies

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is to order ice

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so that they can put the body on ice

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and keep the body fresh.

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When does "body" become an object?

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As the body rots

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and melts away...

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What do you want to be when you are dead?

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[ATELA]
I think I'm going to be glass,

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but I don't know if it's transparent
or totally opaque.

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[SASAMOTO]
--Today, I want to try making a whiskey glass,

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--maybe with some spots,

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--as if this part is...

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[WOMAN]
--Like there's whiskey in there?

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[SASAMOTO]
--Right. Right.

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--Yeah, I guess this was the inside.

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Glass, so finicky as a material.

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I like that aspect of glass.

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That's precisely what I'm interested in my
own studio, too:

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How to control the uncontrollable.

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The material always fights back.

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You know, this thing with art making...

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you have to achieve

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total control

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before you accept chaos in it.

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Do you remember, Pau,

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when I made that shelf
for the bedroom?

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And it was perfectly cut out,

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like a perfect dimension for that,

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but it ended up being a corner of a kitchen.

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And it fits better there.

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I don't understand,

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you have to make so much effort
to make it perfect.

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Then, the object finds its own place
and its own rhythm.

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I hope my kid won't become an artist,

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but I guess I can't control that.

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--Can you eat it from inside out?

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--Can you eat it from inside out?

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--Without breaking!
[AUDIENCE LAUGHS]

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["Strange Attractors," 2010]

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--I just want to go inside...

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[ATELA]
--Then why circles?

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--Then why circles?

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--Then why circles?
--Then why circles?

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["Past in a future tense," 2019]

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[WOMAN]
--I was also wondering in the video, you know...

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--Why a doughnut?

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[SASAMOTO]
--Uh huh. Uh huh.

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--I don't know, I don't want to mention this,

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--so this is hard.

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["Do Nut Diagram," 2018]

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--I couldn't drink during that time, so I...

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--The whole show was around
not being able to drink

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--and wanting to drink alcohol, but...

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--Does this sound like an alcoholic thing?

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--It's not like that!

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[WOMAN]
I don't think so!

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[BOTH LAUGH]

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[SASAMOTO]
--Anyway...

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I have to make objects in such an O.C.D. way.

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When everything is lined up,
it starts to have its own logic,

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and I have no control over it.

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That's another way for me to be 
dominated by objects.

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They start telling its own story.

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--Okay, I'm going to turn it on.

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--This is the weaker fan, so...

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Sometimes it slows down--
and even stops--

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and after five minutes,
it suddenly starts spinning again.

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I like that,

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when objects start to have its own life--

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like you cannot control.

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And then all of a sudden I realize

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that is very much what I'm experiencing
in my life.

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[BABY CRYING]

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I never planned to be a mother,

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but I am now.

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Looking at the spinning glass,

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I don't even understand when I made that decision.

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Everything is constantly moving.

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Whatever I thought I had control over,

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whatever I thought I was,

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will change in front of me.

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That, to me, is exciting--

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in life and in sculpture.

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[WOMAN]
--Okay.

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[SASAMOTO]
--Alright.

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--Anyway, I couldn't drink...

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--I couldn't drink...