Wed, Feb 14, 2024, 12:20-1:10pm MT, on Zoom
Ms. Momoko Usami
Ceramicist
In 2020, the 75th year anniversary of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japanese ceramic artist Momoko Usami was given a public commission to create a bust of Harry S. Truman for Hotel Kansas City. Truman may have advocated for civil rights domestically, but he also authorized the dropping of atomic bombs on Usami’s native country. For Usami, who now lives in the American Midwest with her family, having mixed-race children in a period of civil unrest helped shape the complexity of her depiction of Truman. Her key motivation in her depiction was a fear of repeating the worst of history. Usami hopes that her art increases public awareness so we will not make the same mistakes again, and that we will find better paths for the future.