MANU ULA
Private Collection
Size: 24” x 24” x 1”
Medium: Acrylic Paint on Birch Panel
2024
Created in 2024, Manu Ula is a mixed media series inspired by the ‘ōlelo noʻeau “He noio, ʻā‘e ʻale no ke kai loa”—“Like the noio bird, skimming the far-reaching waves.” This proverb honors the noio (Hawaiian noddy bird) as a metaphor for excellence, precision, and the ability to navigate with grace and confidence across vast distances.
Through layered materials, gestural markings, and recurring avian forms, each piece in the series reflects the noio’s ability to sense subtle shifts in wind and wave, maintaining course even across the open ocean. The works evoke the qualities of discernment and foresight—skills cultivated over time and grounded in deep ancestral intelligence.
Manu Ula is both an homage to the navigational wisdom embodied by this native seabird and a meditation on the pursuit of excellence. The series calls upon viewers to recognize the quiet strength required to move with purpose across uncertain terrain, echoing the values embedded in Hawaiian worldview and wayfinding traditions.
THE PROCESS
The Manu ʻUla series consists of 12" x 12" paintings on acrylic panels, created as an exploration of spatial dualities grounded in Kanaka Maoli philosophy. In this body of work, Herman Piʻikea Clark employs a restrained palette—anchored in white—to investigate the dynamic tension between positive and negative space within the painted field. White becomes more than a color; it functions as an active agent in shaping visual relationships, allowing form and emptiness to coexist in dialogue. Through this approach, Clark engages the symbolic realms of Hina and Kū—feminine and masculine energies, receptive and assertive forces. The painted surface becomes a site of balance and exchange, where opposing principles find rhythm and interdependence. Each panel operates as a compact meditation on movement, stillness, and breath—expressed through gestural marks, layered translucency, and shifting compositions. The clarity of the format, paired with the subtlety of visual interaction, invites viewers to reflect on what is revealed and what is withheld, what asserts and what yields. Manu ʻUla continues Clark’s inquiry into Indigenous abstraction, using minimal form and symbolic resonance to express complex cultural and spiritual relationships.