Aki Sasamoto: An Artist Walks into a Bar | Art21 "New York Close Up"

[Wrong happy hour, 10am–6pm]

["An Artist Walks into a Bar"]

[AKI SASAMOTO]
I got a kidney condition.

The doctor stopped me from drinking,

for three months or so.

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

[Aki Sasamoto, Artist]

So I couldn't drink nine more months,

and I was going crazy.

I realized I should just
make a project about this

and trying to fill that time.

[LAUGHS]

--Can I have some glasses?

[PAU ATELA]
--Sure.

[SASAMOTO]
This one makes a really good sound.

My inspiration comes from my daily life,
I guess.

--Nobody knows

["Delicate Cycle," 2016]

--what "permanent press" really means.

--Can I have a napkin, too?

[ATELA]
--Mmmhmm.

[SASAMOTO]
Sometimes I go to the bar

and then I get a whole piece from there.

I made this piece called "Wrong Happy Hour."

["Wrong Happy Hour," 2014]

The whole premise of the performance

was to push all these beer bottles
off this bar.

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

So once that juxtaposition worked for me,

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

[SOUND OF GLASS BOTTLES CLANKING]

[MAN]
You staying?

[SASAMOTO, OFF SCREEN]
--Get out!

[CROWD CHEERS]

--Go away!

That was about loneliness and romance

and looking for...

["Idea"]
["Us"]

...a tool to pop this.

Do you have an ice pick?

[ATELA]
Yeah.

When I was in India,
I was making a piece

and I was just thinking about
my teenage friend

who I lost

for the death.

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

He told me the first thing they do
when somebody dies

is to order ice

so that they can put the body on ice

and keep the body fresh.

When does "body" become an object?

As the body rots

and melts away...

What do you want to be when you are dead?

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

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

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

--maybe with some spots,

--as if this part is...

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

[SASAMOTO]
--Right. Right.

--Yeah, I guess this was the inside.

Glass, so finicky as a material.

I like that aspect of glass.

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

How to control the uncontrollable.

The material always fights back.

You know, this thing with art making...

you have to achieve

total control

before you accept chaos in it.

Do you remember, Pau,

when I made that shelf
for the bedroom?

And it was perfectly cut out,

like a perfect dimension for that,

but it ended up being a corner of a kitchen.

And it fits better there.

I don't understand,

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

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

I hope my kid won't become an artist,

but I guess I can't control that.

--Can you eat it from inside out?

--Can you eat it from inside out?

--Without breaking!
[AUDIENCE LAUGHS]

["Strange Attractors," 2010]

--I just want to go inside...

[ATELA]
--Then why circles?

--Then why circles?

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

["Past in a future tense," 2019]

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

--Why a doughnut?

[SASAMOTO]
--Uh huh. Uh huh.

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

--so this is hard.

["Do Nut Diagram," 2018]

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

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

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

--Does this sound like an alcoholic thing?

--It's not like that!

[WOMAN]
I don't think so!

[BOTH LAUGH]

[SASAMOTO]
--Anyway...

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

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

and I have no control over it.

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

They start telling its own story.

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

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

Sometimes it slows down--
and even stops--

and after five minutes,
it suddenly starts spinning again.

I like that,

when objects start to have its own life--

like you cannot control.

And then all of a sudden I realize

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

[BABY CRYING]

I never planned to be a mother,

but I am now.

Looking at the spinning glass,

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

Everything is constantly moving.

Whatever I thought I had control over,

whatever I thought I was,

will change in front of me.

That, to me, is exciting--

in life and in sculpture.

[WOMAN]
--Okay.

[SASAMOTO]
--Alright.

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

--I couldn't drink...