Eros of Alumina (White Masses Are...) アルミナのエロス（白い固形は…）

Kosho Ito creates works that exude vital energy using clay and ceramic methods. The works, which seem to commute between nature and artifice, are highly regarded for their insight into people and space, and people and time, something visible in this work, Eros of Alumina (White Solidities are…). The parts forming the work were obtained by firing aluminum mixed with feldspar at a high temperature. Because each is broken and irregular in shape, the parts are all different while yet appearing uniform in a cluster-a quality evocative of nature. Thus, the work takes on an appearance of natural weathering. The artist recomposes the parts differently for each exhibition. Since the work’s first display in 1984, Eros of Alumina has changed form on several occasions. Moreover, although initially consisting of 300 parts, it now consists of over 500, so it has changed greatly in scale as well as appearance. As a work founded on weathering and formal transformation, Eros of Alumina takes change itself as its essence. As such, it poses the question: what is the identity of an artwork? If change itself is the essence of the work, then what should the museum endeavor to preserve and pass on to later generations as the “artwork”? In so far as the parts do not themselves function as an artwork, the museum must continue to search for a method of conveying to the future the artist’s involvement with them, his thoughts and actions, and above all the experience of the artwork.