Details

Title

Coral Tea Set

Artist/Maker

Joan Takayama-Ogawa

Date

1996

Medium

Glazed earthenware

Dimensions

Contact the museum for more information

Credit

Purchase with funds from Lillian C. Giornelli

Accession #

2023.72

Location

On View - Stent Family Wing, Level 2, Gallery 200

Joan Takayama-Ogawa, a third-generation Japanese American whose family has been working in ceramics for centuries, crafts technically challenging vessels that express her impressions of the environmental, social, and political landscape. In Coral Tea Set, she explores the relationship between memory and the environment. After her father’s death, the artist traveled to Hawaii to dive in the spot that her family had visited for decades, only to find the once abundant coral reef greatly diminished. While paying homage to nature, this work invites us to contemplate the changing ecosystem and our role in its decline.