vase; storage box | British Museum

Lecture

Ceramic Poetics and
“Living National Treasures” in Japan Today

7-8:30PM Tuesday, October 14

At the Japan Foundation, Los Angeles
(5700 Wilshire Blvd, Ste100, Los Angeles CA 90036)

Admission FREE
RSVP REQUIRED

Since the 1950s, a select group of Japanese ceramists has received the prestigious designation “Holder of Important Intangible Cultural Property,” colloquially known as “Living National Treasure.” What does this recognition signify today? Drawing on recent interviews and studio visits with current designees and cultural officials, this presentation explores what can be termed their “ceramic poetics”—the interplay of vessel-centric philosophy and the techniques of clay, glaze, and firing defining their work. Of particular interest is how these ceramists channel the local through specific regional materials, processes, and inherited stylistic vocabularies. Their commitment to materiality and place suggests broader ways of thinking about the relationship between humans, culture, and the environment in the twenty-first century.

LECTURER

Meghen Jones is Professor of Art History at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Her research centers on ceramics, modernity, and cultural production in Japan and globally. Following her BA in Fine Art and Japanese Studies from Earlham College and MA training in ceramic craft design at Musashino Art University in Tokyo, she earned her PhD in the History of Art and Architecture from Boston University. She co-edited the multi-author volume Ceramics and Modernity in Japan, has written articles for journals such as Design and Culture, and her translations have been featured in projects such as the Google Cultural Institute’s Made in Japan. Forthcoming is the exhibition catalogue she edited, Path of the Teabowl, and she is currently co-editing the multi-author book A Global History of Japanese Ceramics.

This program is co-organized with Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions & Culture, University of Southern California.