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Community Day: Aki Sasamoto
Jun 15, 2011

Have you ever boxed, thrown water balloons, or discussed your breakfast with a contemporary artist? Kids and parents had the chance to do all of the above at Aki Sasamoto’s artist project, a part of the Community Day celebrating the groundbreaking of the Whitney’s new building project.

As a participant in 2010: Whitney Biennial, artist Sasamoto presented a hybrid installation-and-performance piece titled Strange Attractors. Incorporating sculpture, movement, video, and sound, Sasamoto arranged and altered found objects within the Whitney’s galleries. 

For Community Day, we invited Sasamoto back to transform an empty space at 72 Gansevoort Street into an original, zany installation, designed especially for families. Five Whitney staff members and three volunteers worked alongside the artist to assemble a labyrinth of elastic and wire in just a day and a half. On Saturday, May 21, we opened the installation to the public for kids, parents, and Sasamoto herself to interact and stimulate the senses. 

Sasamoto based this project on two seemingly disparate themes: the gastrointestinal tract and the sport of boxing. A zigzagging corridor delineated by five-foot walls of red elastic suggested the insides of an intestine. We gave each kid a cord with a water balloon attached on one end, inviting him or her to tie it across the walkway. Every time a visitor attached a cord, the space became more difficult to navigate, obliging visitors to crawl, climb, and gambol through the maze. Microphones hovered over the network of elastic intermittently, in which Sasamoto asked kids to answer the question “What did you eat for breakfast today?” As the space filled with participants, the artist drew winding intestinal organs onto the butcher paper-covered walls.

The horizontal red elastic lines of the corridor also resembled a boxing ring. After exiting the elastic labyrinth, visitors entered a forest, populated with bath towels hanging from the ceiling, their size and shape reminiscent of the human body. Sasamoto had carefully sewn paths of mesh, following the hand movements of a masseuse, into each towel, in which water balloons sat snugly. Using the balloons as punching bags, Sasamoto taught families the rules and rituals of boxing. 

As the space teemed with visitors, you could hear shrieks, giggles, and the watery splats of bursting balloons. With intestines and boxing as the source of her inspiration, Sasamoto triggered activity and ideas about movement and the human body, both inside and out. In the slideshow below, check out images of the space as we install and interact in Sasamoto’s project. 

  • The installation space with beams.

    BEFORE: The installation site at 72 Gansevoort, 2011. Photograph by Desi Gonzalez

  • The installation space with a objects on the beams.

    One hour into installing Aki Sasamoto's artist project, 2011. Photograph by Desi Gonzalez

  • The artist puts up towels on the beams in the installation space.

    Sasamoto hangs towels from wire supports, 2011. Photograph by Desi Gonzalez

  • The artist stands on a ladder while kids sit on the ground and work with string.

    Sasamoto concentrates as she assembles microphones hanging from the ceiling, 2011. Photograph by Desi Gonzalez

  • Two people work with string and clothing in the space.

    Staff and volunteers add water balloons to the towels and make an elastic corridor, 2011. Photograph by Desi Gonzalez

  • Three staff members work with a box of chords and balloons.

    Education staff attach balloons to cords of elastic to give to visitors, 2011. Photograph by Desi Gonzalez

  • A woman speaks into a microphone.

    Senior Coordinator of Family Programs tests out the microphones, 2011. Photograph by Desi Gonzalez

  • The art installation in progress.

    This is how the site looks when we wrap up the first day of installing Sasamoto's artist project, 2011. Photograph by Desi Gonzalez

  • The museum staff sits on the ground to get ready for the installation.

    Last-minute preparation before we open to the public on Community Day, 2011. Photograph by Sean Carroll

  • The artist draws lines on a poster wall.

    Sasamoto draws on a piece of paper during her performance, 2011. Photograph by Sean Carroll

  • The artist holds a microphone.

    Sasamoto asks us what we ate for breakfast as a part of her Community Day artist project, 2011. Photograph by Sean Carroll

  • Kids play on the floor of the installation space.

    Kids play in Sasamoto's installation, 2011. Photograph by Sean Carroll

  • A teacher shows a child how to add more red chords to the installation.

    School Programs Assistant teaches a visitor how to add his elastic onto the installation, 2011. Photograph by Sean Carroll

  • A family works on the installation.

    Families in Sasamoto's project, 2011. Photograph by Sean Carroll

  • The artist shows off her boxing skills to a group of kids.

    Kids practice their boxing skills with the artist, 2011. Photograph by Sean Carroll

  • Families play with string during an interactive project.

    School Programs Assistant Liz Gillroy shows a visitor how to add to Sasamoto’s elastic labyrinth, 2011. Photograph by Sean Carroll

  • A family and the artist plays in the installation space.

    Aki shows visitors some boxing pointers, 2011. Photograph by Sean Carroll

  • The artist and museum staff pose in the installation space.

    Sasamoto and Whitney staff pose in the maze of elastic, 2011. Photograph by Ai Wee Seow

  • Red chords fill up the space of the art installation.

    AFTER: This is what Sasamoto's installation looked like at the end of Community Day, 2011. Photograph by Sean Carroll

By Desi Gonzalez, Education Assistant