WOODCUT
PRINTS

Tokelau has a tradition of ta tatau tattooing, although no longer practiced Jack has taken motifs of this tradition and has used these mamanu patterns to carve wood blocks images that celebrates Tokelau art.

These prints are made up of layered images in the same way each generation builds on the one before.

Jack has researched the patterns but mourns the knowledge that has been lost, his practice is about reclaiming the knowledge. He looks to the moana, to fenua, the birds and the indigenous animals to re-educate himself in his ancestral knowledge. His imagination, his dreams and the fragmented stories passed down leads him to imagine the meaning of the patterns. This work allows him to offer this re-found knowledge to the younger generations, he is taking his place as part of the river of knowledge that keeps the culture alive, representing Jack’s whakapapa