Good Intentions

Utilizing video, objects, performance and installation, Jon Sasaki’s work takes cynicism, futility and tragedy as starting points, countering the thematic heaviness with dry, comic delivery. Sasaki investigates an eternal optimism that, while endearing and charming, is filled with the trappings of failure. Given that all things that pass do not end in a result that one might hope for, the inherent possibility for failure becomes an opportunity to find beauty, or to discover a sweetened sense of the human condition. An unfulfilled promise still has its origins in an earnest belief and still delivers the notion of one who tries… really, really hard.

Sasaki is a self-described romantic-conceptualist who pays homage to always looking on the bright side. Good Intentions will be comprised primarily of videos, including Sasaski’s new work, Crossroads. Produced in Clarksdale, Mississippi, the video documents the Clarksdale Crossroads, where legendary blues icon Robert Johnson made the choice to ‘sell his soul to the devil’ in exchange for extraordinary guitar skills. This tale is rich with themes that Sasaki has been exploring for some time—aspiration, tragedy, success, failure, ambition, choice, and fate. These themes will also play out in Sasaki’s installations and performative collaborations with University of Toronto Scarborough students throughout the exhibition.