Closed form,

1990s

On the days I taught ceramic sculpture in the visual arts building at 185 Nassau Street, I would encounter the display of three blue vessels by Toshiko Takaezu in the hallway. I was incredibly pleased that prior to my time here on campus, there was another Asian American woman paving the way and teaching the art of clay in Princeton. As I look at the profound pieces of her Nickel Pink vessels, I can imagine her hands and fingers working with the clay, perhaps a combination of both throwing and coiling as she smoothed out the surface with a bit of burnishing before dousing their tops with her choice of salmon and blue glazes. I find clay to be the ultimate documenter of time. What was Takaezu thinking about when she enclosed these three nickel vessels? Did she walk the same steps I did on campus? I wonder about the future in which students will continue to
look at our work and ponder the time in which it was created and how things have and haven’t changed.

Jennie Jieun Lee
Professor of the Practice, School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University
Former lecturer in the Visual Arts, Princeton University