Islands (Shimatachi)

A work in three parts, Islands is made out of Japanese basalt (dorokaburi, or “mud-covered basalt”) quarried in the Tohoku region. Together its pieces weigh about 12,000 pounds. For all of his works, Izumi Masatoshi scouts out the stone he wants to use, sometimes spending many months looking for suitable materials. Here he selected a basalt with an exterior of fossilized mud in tones of yellow, brown, and gold and a blackish-gray interior. He cleaved all three parts of the sculpture from one large stone, which is evident in the way their contours fit together. Though the finished product may still appear to be raw, Izumi amplified the natural character of the stone by meticulously cutting or polishing every surface. Islands is thus a contemporary work that recalls a Japanese tradition of reverence for natural materials.

Generations of the Izumi family were stonemasons in the town of Mure on the island of Shikoku. Izumi Masatoshi began to focus on stonecutting as an artistic medium at an early age. In 1964 he began a decades-long collaboration with Isamu Noguchi, whose stone sculptures he executed until Noguchi’s death in 1988.