Yoshie Sakai creates characters that respond to and negotiate contemporary social issues of cultural identity, gender roles, and familial and personal relationships. As a subtly transgressive undercover cultural agent, she exposes the absurdities of manipulative social structures while humorously struggling and reveling in them as a participant. By staging her videos within intimate installations that become psychological and imaginative playhouses, she gives form to our vulnerability, evoking, sometimes, nervous laughter. Sakai’s installations transform found objects into imaginary interiors grounded in both tangible and fantastical domesticity. Her work critiques capitalism’s production of space and ways of being, while also drawing on popular forms of entertainment and media to engage diverse audiences, especially those historically devalued, ignored, and seen as burdens. She uses tropes including East Asian soap operas, Hollywood musicals, and the wellness industry to expose the anxieties of aspiration, model minority myths, and filial piety through the lens of the longstanding, yet under-represented Japanese American community in South Los Angeles.
Image: Yoshie Sakai, Grandma Entertainment Franchise: Grandma Day Spa, 2023. Installation (Vincent Price Art Museum, Monterey Park, California). Single-channel mixed media video installation. 25′ x 16′ x 14′ feet. Image courtesy of the artist and Elon Schoenholz (@elonschoenholz).