Manos Nathan

(Te Roroa / Nga Puhi / Ngati Whatua)

Since the mid 1980's Manos has been at the forefront of the development of the Maori ceramic movement. He is the co-founder of Nga Kaihanga Uku. His involvement with clay emerged from a background of woodcarving and sculpture and his works in clay draw on a rich heritage of the customary art forms and on the Maori cosmological and creation narratives.


When Manos first began working with clay, his elders challenged him to provide a Maori foundation for his work.   He thought at first that they were putting pressure on him to stay with wood, but he later realised that they were in fact making him consider how his new work with clay linked with Maori tradition.
 

His earliest works that clearly fitted into a Maori cultural context were waka taurahere tangata and waka pito. These vessels are made to hold a baby’s placenta and umbilical cord after birth, for burial on the child’s tribal lands. Later he began making whakapakoko, figurative works inspired by ancient funerary chests.
 
Whakapakoko have a political significance for Manos. In the late nineteenth century, waka koiwi from Manos’s tribal lands were plundered and sold.. These taonga (treasures) have been the subject of a claim to the Waitangi Tribunal to investigate their theft and request their return. Manos is descended from the carvers of many of the chests currently held in museum collections.
 
Manos built the Whakapakoko Tutei work using coils of clay, gradually moulding its form. He refined it by carving and scraping when the clay was partly dried. When dry it was given a coating of oxides and fired.
 
Ipu untitled 2003

Stoneware
 
Manos Nathan continues to make pieces, which are connected to traditional or customary use. The shape of this ipu (container), curving up to a spout, suggests the gourd – a common container for food and water in earlier times. Mano has also been influenced by the form of the kumete, a carved bowl used for the ceremonial presentation of food.
 
This ipu is made from a mix of local and commercial clays blended with white clay from Matauri Bay in Northland. A manaia, a beaked figure from traditional woodcarving, reaches from the lip of the vessel towards its shoulder.