Born in 1973. Lives and works in Toronto.
Jon Sasaki’s multidisciplinary art practice brings performance, video, object and installation into a framework where expectation and outcome never align, generating a simultaneous sense of pathos and fun. His work employs reason-based approaches reminiscent of conceptual art while investigating romantic subjects; in this juxtaposition, Sasaki creates humorous, self-exhaustive systems caught in cycles of trial and error.
Jack Pine, 8′ Camera Crane (2010)
A sweeping 360-degree crane shot at the majestic vista where the notable Canadian landscape painter Tom Thomson created his iconic Jack Pine (1916-1917.) Far more cumbersome than a paint box, the crane literally clashes with the subject with slapstick intensity. An affectionate critique of the ineradicable Canadian landscape genre, and a humourous look at the ways it can be incompatible with some tools of contemporary art-making.
Dead End, Eastern Market, Detroit (2015)
In Detroit’s rapidly-gentrifying Eastern Market neighbourhood, a white van approaches the fenced-off dead end of an alleyway, before beginning a laborious, tense and exhausting process of course correction.
The Romantic Journey Was Usually a Solitary One (2014)
The second seat of a two-rider tandem bicycle has been cut out and discarded, with the remaining components brazed back together, reconfigured as serviceable transportation for one.
Flyguy Triggering His Own Motion Sensor (2010)
A flyguy (one of the familiar dancing inflatables that wave people into carwashes and fast food restaurants) has been moved into the gallery and hooked up to a motion sensor. In this tragicomic installation, he writhes on the ground, making heartbreaking convulsions in front of the motion sensor. If he were to stop for a moment, the power would shut off and he would fall still forever.
Sourced from Jon Sasaki’s Website