Curated by Ruba Katrib

Aki Sasamoto’s performances exist in a realm somewhere between Fluxus events, TED talks, and IKEA hacks. A delight in the physics of cause and effect seemingly propels the artist’s interactions within a landscape of MacGyvered devices. Sasamoto frequently implements repurposed housewares—mops, brooms, impossibly long forks—in her performances, and will continue that trend this fall at SculptureCenter for her first solo show at a US museum. Here, the artist will install washers and dryers as part of a new body of site-specific work centered on notions of cleanliness and filth and the neuroses they engender. It is difficult to predict what all this will add up to: The only certain aspect of Sasamoto’s practice—rife with fanciful monologues, symbol-laden gestures, and visual gags—is the element of surprise.

— Dawn Chan