Alice Springs based ceramic artist Pip McManus uses both universal human symbols and images taken directly from nature to explore issues of identity and survival in a world of destruction and dispossession.
Watershed: (Touring with Object Gallery) 'In a contemporary, technology obsessed world perceived through the lens of lightning edits and media grabs, the natural rhythms of organic systems are often pushed to the verge of collapse before we are willing to take notice.'
Reconnaissance: 'I was never given a story as a child to explain the absence of a father. It was a taboo subject... not so long ago
my father’s flying log book came into my hands. Reading it was both revealing and sobering. He flew Catalina flying boats out of Darwin throughout the Pacific region in the final stages of WWII. As it turns out, the most intense entries all relate to sorties in and around the Philippines...'
'Ichor [The ethereal fluid flowing in the veins of the gods, but poisonous to mortals]' (winner of 35th Alice Prize 2008): 'Pip McManus’ Ichor video is mesmerising. A golden unfired clay figure, enlarged on-screen, very slowly disintegrates in water. Every nuance and escaping air bubble draws the viewer’s entranced attention. The gently dissolving figure is suggestive. It embraces an acceptance of natural processes, of the inevitable organic cycle of change. It suggests mortality and fragility as well as meditative contemplation. Loss and enrichment, ancient and contemporary life are all inferred.' (From 'When Ceramics Meets Video', review article by Julia Jones.)
'The Poisoned Well' documents a century of genocide with 100 glazed hands bearing individual plant impressions plus accompanying text.
'green line' traces the "invisible line, as clear as day" which divides the Jewish and Arab cities of Jerusalem.
'Unpromised Land' reflects on the links between two tragic zionist narratives.
The Retablos in 'Hotline to Heaven' celebrate suburban tales of miraculous intercession.
