Rung Way Up | Jon Sasaki gets climbing in “Ladder Stack,” part of his Some Unabashed Optimism exhibition at Latitude 53.
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This week, Jill and Mandy return once again to their beloved Latitude 53, where the laughter and tears never end in the tragic/funny video works of artist Jon Sasaki.
Mandy: Jon Sasaki’s exhibition Some Unabashed Optimism features a number of video pieces and one large, sad, empty mascot named NORK, which sits empty on the gallery floor, slumped against some stacked white gallery cubes. The events taking place in each individual video vary widely, but they all share an absurdist sense of humour, a pull between being strangely sad and just ridiculous. Perhaps most noteworthy is the large projection of Sasaki’s “I Promise It Will Always Be This Way,” a 30-minute video which documents a 12-hour endurance performance of colourful mascots, NORK included, manically staving off exhaustion with their antics.
Jill: While the gallery contains four video pieces in total, you certainly notice the mascot-themed one first. It’s on a huge projection screen, it’s loud, and it’s bizarre — not to mention funny. Twenty-six people dressed up in mascot costumes, performing mascot-related stunts, attempting to “whip the crowd into a fervent frenzy” even though no sports event is actually going on. Sasaki has said he intended the video to be a continuation of his pet themes of futility and the human condition of optimism in the face of failure, and the premise certainly set up the participants to fail. However, he wasn’t expecting the crowd to be so upbeat and supportive of the mascot group; the video ended up as a kind of counterpoint, or at least a rare positive note, to the rest of the exhibition.
Mandy: I found it downright hilarious. I think the mascot costumes had a lot to do with the appeal of that piece. They are living cartoon characters, with detachable heads. Seeing these giant fuzzy creatures begging for cheers on an otherwise empty field was just the ultimate. And then lying down behind the front line, exhausted, while the crowd chants out their character name to encourage them — “Bumblebee!” — over and over. Oh jeez, I was excited by this video.
Jill: It was pretty exciting. But what did you think of the rest of the exhibition in relation to that piece? Poor empty NORK (the sadly obsolete mascot of North York before it merged with Toronto) certainly fit the bill as a contrast to the hyper-funny mascot video. But what about the other videos? How did you feel they related?
Mandy: There was certainly a bit of a disconnect there, in style as much as anything else. The other videos were displayed on three smaller television sets, which were relegated to the three remaining corners of the gallery space. In one, Sasaki futilely climbs a series of ladders; in another he pulls out a map while he’s driving, obstructing his view of the road for an extended period of time; and in the last, he’s vacuuming up paper confetti with a vacuum that has a hole pierced in the top of the bag, creating a never-ending cycle of domestic ludicrousness. All three of these videos are very dry, and don’t produce the same kind of emotional investment that “I Promise It Will Always Be This Way” did for me.
Jill: The only one that I thought kind of worked was “Untitled (Vacuum),” the one with the vacuum and the confetti. And you’re right: they were all pretty dry and almost static. But from a curatorial standpoint, I think the vacuum piece would have been most successful as a companion to the mascot piece. It was dry yet humourous, and it has a similar sense of ridiculousness as the mascot piece (albeit on a very different level). I could have done without “The Destination and the Journey” (the map piece) and “Ladder Stack,” but I think placing more emphasis on the duality between the two other videos would have conveyed the balance of comedy and tragedy that Sasaki was looking for in this exhibition.
Mandy: Yeah, good call. Also, the flying confetti added this unpredictable element of motion — a simulated indoor blizzard — to that video that balanced its sterile atmosphere and tone. Perhaps it’s the inclusion of elements Sasaki does not control that makes this video and the piece with the mascots stand out. They develop into surprisingly sweet examinations of character.
Jill: Indeed. Besides, with a dose of the saccharine insanity that is “I Promise It Will Always Be This Way”, an injection of hyperreality is definitely in order. Go see this show — you will laugh your face off.
Some Unabashed Optimism is on exhibit at Latitude 53 until May 16.
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