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Mano Hand-Held Sculptures by Nick Duval-Smith

    One of my favourite activities is to look for things like stones on
beaches, and the little beaches of Dunedin’s harbour have special treats
to find, which are fragments of old broken crockery.
    The waves and the sand beautifully wear the best of these into shapes
that almost look natural. When I find a piece that excites me I hold it in my
left hand as a ‘tuner’ to aid my search.
    I make little collections of the sweetest pieces and arrange them to make
pictures. I love the feeling of these fragments in my hands; they are an
excellent synthesis of human -made form and natural form. It is this synthesis
I try to emulate in my sculptures.
    Mano hand-held sculptures were born of an intuitive way of
working, without drawings or solid ideas, but just a feeling. This produces
the most unexpected results. It's like talking without censoring or even
thinking about what I’m going to say. I didn't know what I was making until
they were finished, and I started giving them to people to hold. People's faces
light up with an intuitive understanding of what the sculpture is, and what it's for.
'Mano' is Spanish for hand. I chose this word because they are made
by hand, for hands.

Also, mano makes a nice stone shape in my mouth when I say it.

All the manos are in bronze now, actually -the photographs
were taken at an early stage in development and I haven't
re -photographed them since.

mano 1.1 YIN-YAN bronze 76mm right hand	mano 1.2 DOVE aluminium 87mm right hand
mano 1.3 SLIP SEED bronze 71mm right hand	mano 1.4 SLUG aluminium 53mm right hand
mano 1.5 PEBBLE aluminium 52mm right hand	mano 1.6 BENT bronze 47mm right hand
mano 1.7 SIMPLE bronze 51mm both hands	mano 1.8 FETISH aluminium 76mm both hands
mano 1.9 DUB aluminium 61mm left hand	mano 1.10 LEFTY aluminium 73mm left hand
mano 1.11 PROP aluminium 76mm both hands	mano 1.12 WING aluminium 75mm left hand
mano 1.13 DRIFTWOOD aluminium 69mm lefthand	mano 1.14 SNAIL aluminium 64mm right hand
mano 1.15 SCOOP aluminium 54mm right hand	mano 1.16 WAVE aluminium 101mm both hands