Jon Sasaki’s Moving the Goal Posts runs until November 10 at The New Gallery

Absurd and existential themes are consistent strategies for many modern, postmodern and contemporary art practises. These philosophical inquiries also function as a strong impetus for the cross-pollination of different arts disciplines such as theatre, film, literature and music. Although the adjective “existential” holds many connotations that apparently deter the layman or have been deemed inaccessible for contemporary audiences, these skeptical views of the human condition are as crucial today as they have ever been.

With the increasingly facile communalism espoused in many contemporary art circles, it’s refreshing to see an exhibition such as Jon Sasaki's Moving the Goal Posts that brings out some of these neglected themes with a fresh self-deprecating flair. Sasaki's work confronts the many challenges of art-making and life in general with wry, jaded humour. The result is a tightly composed group of works with underlying currents of art world and societal critique.

In the front of The New Gallery's mall space, three works by Sasaki are on display, encompassing dense layers of pop cultural and art historical references. The Artist's First Self-Portrait: Bronzed hangs on the wall at the entrance of the gallery, encasing forever the image of a brooding young Sasaki (in 1988) along with its gold-leaf frame. Sasaki's bronzed painting immortalizes forever those tentative first steps toward life as an artist, albeit through an act of iconoclasm. The content of the painting disappears behind the cast of coppery metal, leaving only vague reified brush strokes to remind us of the former portrait. Sasaki's reference to cheesy parental mementos disarms naive fantasies of genius with a deft, sarcastic touch.

Across from the self-portrait, in the storefront window of the gallery, is Sasaki's multiple Jon Sasaki's Best Friendship. This unlimited edition features a series of heart-shaped "best friend" pendants that can be purchased and shared with the artist to symbolize becoming part of his growing network of friends. The artist's own necklace (with about 30 or 40 half pendants) rests on a black velvet jewelry display bust enclosed with a copy of the multiple in a vitrine. A sly commentary on art-world networking and the strategic friendships that go along with it, Sasaki's necklaces present a sense that many of the relationships we name as "friendships" are no such thing. Additionally, the piece makes subtle reference to other forms of friend-working. Facebook comes to mind as a particularly strong example of the fey, political maneuvering that Sasaki is alluding to. The site-specific play with window shopping at TNG's retail location adds a wonderful element to the project: shopping for friends!

Beside Best Friendship is the video work Fireworks in which the artist places a lit firework inside a Plexiglas vitrine and documents the various fizzles, pops and escaping smoke. The potential of constrained violence in this sequence is palpable. There is a considered level of suspense as we expect some dramatic blast to blow the Plexiglas apart, only to be witness to the slow, pathetic burnout of the firework. Amongst many possible associations, Fireworks points towards the increasingly grotesque conflation of art and spectacle in contemporary practise, revealing the promises of art-ertainment as superficial display. The transformative power of art is all smoke and no fire, so to speak.

In the back are two more video performances of the artist in his guise as an "everyman." 24lbs and Ladder Climb both consist of absurd, funny and disturbing events in which the artist’s character respectively holds an anvil out of his apartment balcony during a winter storm and attempts to climb an unsupported ladder in front of an abandoned building. 24lbs particularly echoes with complex ideas, recalling the Looney Tunes’ Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner animations, and suggesting the very serious consequences of applying cartoon violence to real-world situations. With similar pathos, Ladder Climb presents a sad vision of Sasaki's persona repeatedly attempting (and failing) to climb a ladder that will get him nowhere. In both we are reminded of a Sisyphean conundrum, the impossible steps toward transcendence and the importance of continuing in the face of certain disappointment.