Tāne-te-Waiora

Ko te tino take e rongonui ai a Manos Nathan, he toi uku; heoi anō, he kaipeita, he kaiwhakairo rākau matatau hoki. Ko te Tāne-te-Waiora, 1981, nō te raupapatanga a Nathan i titiro ai ki te atua a Tāne me ōna pūkenga maha e kōrerotia ana i roto i ngā kōrero a te Māori mō te orokohanga o te ao. Ko tēnei toi a Tāne-te-Waiora, he toi mō Tāne e pūtake ai te tauoranga, te tōnuitanga, te oranga, te rā e whiti mai ana. Kei roto i tēnei toi a te ringa toi, kei te mānu a Tāne, ngā ringa e tū ana. Kei te horapa te kōwhaiwhai atu i te pokapū kua kaurukutia ki te ranunga o te peita rehu me ngā apanga kua tāhuatia ki ngā rārangi whakatarapī. Kei te whakaatu a Nathan i a Tāne i roto i te taiao tārewa o ngā rangi tūhāhā.

Manos Nathan is best known for his prolific clay practice; however, he was also a talented painter and woodcarver. This painting, Tāne-te-Waiora, 1981, is from Nathan’s series which looked at the deity Tāne and his many attributes and gifts, as told in Māori creation narratives. The work recalls Tāne-te-Waiora – Tāne who gives life, prosperity, welfare and sunlight. In the artist’s depiction, Tāne floats with arms upraised. We see kōwhaiwhai (rafter painting) patterning radiating outwards from the shaded centre and achieved through a mixture of spray-painted and stencilled layers with delicate line work. Here, Nathan presents Tāne within the suspended environment of the celestial realm.

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