Artek - Man Yau: I think in colours

Man Yau: I think in colours

”I’ve always created art through colours. All my sketches are in colour, too. I can’t think without them. Or rather, I think in colours.”

1/10/2018

Kaunis-Arki-Man-Yau — Man Yau (born 1991) is a new generation ceramic artist studying the contrast between the artificial and hand-made.

I rarely leave my work without surface treatment. I tend to colour-coat them or colour the whole material. I make colour charts of the environment. If I see a nice colour combination on the street, I take a photo. I always use blue in some form. Its tones are easy to fire on ceramics. Yet blue also carries a deeper meaning to me. I particularly love light blue; I associate it with dolphins. They are an important metaphor for me that I repeat in my work. For example, the protagonist of my latest exhibition is Delfu, representing illusion and chasing an illusion. The character of the material guides the use of colours. Certain colours work better with certain materials. I’ll use a different palette when blowing glass compared to carving wood.

Artek_Man_Yau_2 — Man Yau’s works are large, consisting of pieces. On Pirkka Table a detail from the Sea installation.

I work slowly, digging out the form. My idiom often resembles an industrial finish. That is my purpose. My objective is to create an object that is as smooth and subhuman as possible. At some point, the form is ready. It’s a special and exciting moment. Then I know that the form is perfect.

Most of my works are ceramic sculptures, but I also sculpt of marble, glass and wood. I’ve always been lucky and met good people. When I was 19, I went to visit a stone shop in Tattarisuo. I’s a worn shack located in a run-down industrial area in the middle of the woods, full of rocks of different shapes and sizes. Experienced sculptors work there. I didn’t know anybody there or anything about sculpture. Little by little they taught me the techniques. They took me to secret hardware stores and told me where to find the best parts and tools, like diamond wheels. I thanked them with some plaited sweetbread. At Tattarisuo, I learned everything I know about stone.

I’m interested in art that expresses an obvious fact about this moment so that I can identify with it in one way or another. However, I’ve always felt strongly about Constantin Brancusi, whose sculptures possess a timeless glow, at least in my eyes. I’ve sat in his studio in Paris many times. I wish I could explain what is so attractive about his work. His studio is full of people like me, wide-eyeing the work to figure out where the glow originates. His work reflects mysterious esthetic perfection. That is what I want to achieve, too.”

Man Yau

Born in 1991 in Helsinki. Finishing her master’s thesis in the Aalto University.

Latest solo exhibition Delfu in August at Galleria Huuto, Helsinki. Yau’s work Porcelain Decks that combines ceramics and video art was presented in a group exhibition at the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, California, in the spring of 2017. Interested in presentation, artificiality, dexterity and contrasts.

www.manyau.fi