Statement:

Utilizing film, video, objects, performance and installation, this work takes cynicism, futility and tragedy as starting points, then counters the thematic heaviness with dry, comic delivery. Often structured like the familiar “shaggy dog joke,” much of this work is a deadpan escalation of expectations, followed by an anticlimactic punch line. It is a celebration of futility, resignation and pathos.
There is strong skepticism toward themes of development, transformation and emergence, whether applied to art practice itself, or taken in a broader sense. In the video work, repeated use of an earnest “everyman” character in short looping videos suggest an inescapable cycle of trial and failure, in many ways a reflection on the mechanics of making artwork and the frustrations that can accompany its presentation. However, though the work may be cynical on the surface, it invariably asserts a fervent, unabashed optimism lying just below.

Bio:

Jon Sasaki utilizes primarily video, objects, performance, installation and interventions, producing work that mixes humor and pathos, usually with discomforting or gently antagonistic results. He is currently partway through a traveling solo exhibition entitled “Good Intentions” organized by the Doris McCarthy Gallery at the University of Toronto, in partnership with the Kenderdine Art Gallery (University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon), Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Southern Alberta Art Gallery (Lethbridge, AB), MacLaren Art Centre (Barrie, ON), Prairie Art Gallery (Grande Prairie, AB) and the Dunlop Art Gallery (Regina SK). He has participated in group exhibitions at VOX (Montreal), The Vancouver Art Gallery, the Owens Art Gallery (Mount Allison University, Sackville, NB), Simon Fraser University Gallery (Burnaby, BC), as well as the 2006 and 2008 editions of Toronto’s Nuit Blanche. He holds a BFA from Mount Allison University, lives and works in Toronto and is represented by Jessica Bradley Art + Projects.

I gratefully acknowledge the support of the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.