The Shiga Museum of Art is hosting "Paradise Dungeon," a comprehensive exhibition of Sasaoka Yuriko’s video and sculptural works. The show traces the artist's career from her 2011 response to the Tōhoku earthquake to her latest large-scale installations, characterized by a "grotesque" aesthetic involving marionettes with digitally superimposed human faces. Her work utilizes mediated artifice—including fairground-style soundtracks, repurposed toys, and violent puppetry—to explore themes of consumption, sacrifice, and the dehumanizing nature of digital observation.
Sasaoka’s practice is significant for its critical examination of how modern society processes real-world suffering through the lens of screens and gaming. By placing her own likeness onto manipulated puppets, she highlights the tension between performance and judgment, forcing viewers to confront the callousness of human excess and the disposability of both objects and living beings. The exhibition marks a major moment for the artist, showcasing her evolution from painting to complex, multi-channel video installations that challenge moral didacticism through carnivalesque absurdity.