Gyro (2018) is a vibrant and surreal video installation in which an array of human and animal figures populate a densely layered, digitally collaged landscape. The work is presented from a static vantage point, inviting the viewer to absorb the scene as a continuous, almost painterly tableau. The animals’ heads are composed of painted human hands, animated to perform the gestures and expressions of their respective creatures, while a reclining figure in blue dominates the foreground, presiding over the unfolding activity. In the background, a recurring human head softly intones the phrase ‘I forgive you,’ establishing a ritualistic cadence that threads throughout the work.

The imagery evokes a lush environment of trees, water, and temple structures reminiscent of Japanese landscapes, yet the natural world is rendered entirely through human intervention. Operatic chanting overlays the scene, simultaneously hypnotic and foreboding, describing ecological collapse. Sasaoka’s anthropomorphized hands and puppet-like figures suggest the complicity of humanity in its own devastation, as the natural world literally emerges from human forms.

Responding to the 2011 Japanese tsunami and other disasters, Gyro navigates collective grief, mortality, and reconciliation while also reflecting on cultural understanding of these events. The work reflects on human attempts to comprehend forces beyond control, framing natural disasters as the deeds of ‘religious demons’ that have rebelled against divine order. Through the interplay of absurdist theatricality, ritualized forgiveness, and densely constructed imagery, Sasaoka explores themes of culpability, acceptance, and also hope. The work asks the viewer to witness both destruction and atonement, suggesting that reconciliation, like the choreography of the puppet figures, requires careful attention and engagement. Gyro becomes a meditation on the fragile balance between human and natural worlds, blending mythology, humour, and horror to create a reflective experience; one that recasts ‘acts of god’ as ‘acts of demons’ that we must none the less commune with, be grateful for, learn from and ultimately forgive.