《12 white inventories》(5/12)

This work consists of 12 storage boxes and a collection database, created to organize and manage a personal coin collection entrusted to the artist. The original owner of the collection passed away in the summer of 2024, and according to their will, the collection has been divided into 12 pieces for sale at this fair. However, sales will not continue until all pieces are sold; instead, the process will be halted once approximately 50–70% of the pieces have been purchased.

The concept of this work lies in the delegation of storage and management of a personal collection. By creating storage boxes and a management database, and further transferring part of the responsibility to the buyers, the work seeks to question the duality of assets and liabilities in artistic practice, as well as the notion of ownership. By presenting the acts of collecting, recording, and managing as an artwork itself, this piece aims to encourage new perspectives on these processes.

Additionally, the sale price of this work is based solely on material costs, and there are no plans to pursue profit from its sales in the future.

KUBOTAOGUISS’s practice focuses on an aspect of cultural assets as a liability; his work often evades the physical creation of new objects, by means of temporary transfer of existing goods, making pacts, and undertaking other people’s liabilities. In his recent works, KUBOTAOGUISS has explored the communal ownership of objects, and ways to deal with a wide variety of liabilities, on levels ranging from the personal to the whole of humanity.

Kubotaoguiss’ method of production that focuses on the primary or secondary sediments of processes, locations and time needed for the presentation of artwork, stimulates the viewer by incorporating into the artwork, even the capacity of thought generated by viewing. Living in contemporary Japan, we carry various tangible and intangible burdens and responsibilities from the personal to societal levels including finance; his series inspired from the liabilities hidden in daily life, presents the comprehensive question towards the entirety of our life’s business.

（Kaoru Usukubo）