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

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

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Video Language:
English
Team:
Art21
Project:
"New York Close Up" series
Duration:
09:43

English subtitles

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