Grilled Diagrams: Performance by Aki Sasamoto

During Grilled Diagrams, Aki Sasamoto’s first institutional solo exhibition in the UK, the artist will stage four live performances within her major new installation.

Drawing inspiration from televised cooking shows and street food carts, Sasamoto’s performances will unfold as live, improvised acts of movement and drawing. Each will centre around a custom-built, oversized griddle and the seemingly unremarkable, yet intricate manipulation of ingredients across the griddle's surface, visible in a three-metre-long, angled mirror.

The exhibition comprises a site-sensitive installation that developed from Sasamoto’s observations of daily life, as well as her curiosity about systems and processes – in this case, the experience of cooking large quantities of food on outdoor griddles. Incorporating everyday items and contemporary detritus, her meticulously staged installation functions as a prompt or score for structured improvisation: challenging conventional definitions of sculpture and instead inviting active participation in her unfolding narratives.

Sasamoto’s work incisively probes the tension between disorder and control. Her performances, often staged as vivid and digressive monologues, weave together fables, anecdotes and autobiographical fragments, inviting her audiences to retune their perceptions of the seemingly mundane.

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Lead Programme Supporters: Japan House London, Shane Akeroyd and FOUNDATION FOUNDATION. Programme Supporters: Henry Moore Foundation, The Aki Sasamoto Exhibition Circle and The Studio Voltaire Council. Studio Voltaire’s 2025-2026 exhibition programme is supported by Cockayne Grants for the Arts.

About Aki Sasamoto

Aki Sasamoto (b. 1980, Kanagawa, Japan), lives and works in New York. Key solo exhibitions include Museum of Tokyo (2025); Para Site, Hong Kong (2024); Queens Museum, New York (2023-2024); the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York (2023); The Kitchen, New York (2017); and SculptureCenter, New York (2016). She has participated widely in international exhibitions including the 59th Venice Biennale (2022); Aichi Triennale (2022); Busan Biennale (2022); Okayama Art Summit (2022); Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2016); Yokohama Triennale (2008); and the Whitney Biennial (2010). Sasamoto received the Calder Prize in 2023.

Access

If you have any questions or need assistance with your visit, please feel welcome to contact us at +44 (0) 20 7622 1294 or [email protected]. Read Studio Voltaire's full access information here.

Image credit

Aki Sasamoto, Point Reflection, 2023–2024. Performance at the Queens Museum. Photo courtesy of the artist and Queens Museum. Credit Hai Zhang.

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