Joan Takayama-Ogawa: Ceramic Beacon

16
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ceramic beacon
zaiden
With more than a decade of technical expertise under her
belt, by the late 1990s, she started to tell stories more overtly and
convey messages through her pieces. She challenged herself to
become fluent in using clay as commentary. She continued to reinvent
functional ceramic forms by imbuing them with her ideas
and formally approaching them from new directions. Narrative
and political expression became her core goal at the turn of the
21st century. She created pieces that warned about the powerful
forces pushing society and our ecosystems to the edge. Viewing
the stock market bubble as it was about to burst, Takayama-
Ogawa re-envisioned the iconic tea vessel from a contemporary
lens. She built a precious, Fabergé-like 2-Lippo Mania Teapot and
layered in an allusion to the tulip craze of the Dutch Golden Age
(FIG. 3). The piece was a playful summation of the indulgent whims
of market capitalism, a topic she regularly revisits.
(FIG. 3)
2-Lippo Mania Teapot:
Dot Com Stock
Market Bust
2000
Glazed earthenware