In the late 1990s, when Aki Sasamoto moved from her hometown of Kanagawa, Japan, to the United States, she was hoping to become a teacher or a mathematician. But at Wesleyan University, in Connecticut, she discovered she could major in the arts. “It was all downhill from there,” she told Art Asia Pacific last month. Sasamoto studied dance and studio art instead, and since then has created large-scale installations that double as performance spaces. In 2010, her Strange Attractions was a room filled with household objects that floated in space. In 2014, Wrong Happy Hour was set in a makeshift barroom where performers drank beer and chatted—until Sasamoto swept everyone out with a broom (a metaphor for romantic rejection). In her first major solo show, Sasamoto is staging two performances. —Elena Clavarino