Hear the Curator

The bell of remembrance, cast in 2000, was erected in Princeton University’s Memorial Garden in 2003, along with fourteen* metal stars set in the ground in memory of fourteen* Princeton alumni who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Sound has always been a hidden characteristic of Toshiko Takaezu's art, whether in bronze or clay. Best known as a potter who taught at Princeton for twenty-five years, Takaezu was at the forefront of a movement that turned ceramics from a craft into an art form. She transformed ordinary clay vessels, such as bowls and pots, by closing the vessels’ forms. This took away their practical function and turned them into pure sculpture—and yet Takaezu often left a clay rattle inside the closed forms, causing each pot to ring like a bell. This bell was first molded as a clay model with high-relief ribs of dripped glazes to create a richly textured surface.

*This transcript has been corrected to reflect that fourteen Princeton graduates died during the attacks of September 11, 2001, based on information received by the University in 2016.