Monday, July 24, 2017

World of WearableArt 2017 is...go!!!



The anxious wait for the results of the first round of judging for the World of WearableArt came through a week ago.

This is a day when nothing gets done in a WoW designer's life from 9am in the morning whilst you try and distract yourself by refreshing your email inbox 30 times a minute. As you can imagine, this wears out your keyboard and the patience of everyone around you, be it at home, work or on holiday. As my partner and I work from home, sharing the same office studio with the cat, I had two to annoy all day with my distracted demeanour and attention focussed only on my screen. The computer, my tablet and my phone. Changed days from when I first started entering in 1995, when results were sent out by snail mail which could arrive anytime in the week, depending on where you lived and the postal service!

The private messenger groups we have all formed were buzzing with anticipation, nervousness, impatience and then finally celebration, relief or sadness depending on whether the email started with 'Congratulations...' or 'Thankyou for entering...'

The designer facebook forum started to fill up with pictures of simply amazing pieces that weren't selected. We aren't party to the judges criteria, or to the curation of art for the show. You can only make a piece from the heart, to the best of your ability and hope for the best. If the section has a brief, answer it, if not, design your own brief.

My piece for this year was selected for the Weta Workshop Costume and film section, the theme is Science Fiction. Part of the 2017 brief is 'Create an extra-terrestrial being from an alien world or a human being as you can imagine them living in the year 3446'. 
I've reimagined something in the cyborg realm. Other than that I can't tell you anything except to say it's super creepy and it took me a while to show my family what I'd made in case they thought I'd lost my mind. I love what I've done and once again I pushed beyond the boundaries of what I know I can do into the territory of what I could do if I used my grey matter and learned a few new skills. Each year I learn more and this is what keeps me on the WoW marathon. It's bootcamp for the creative being.

Come the award night, I'll be able to post my entry all over social media, so you'll have to wait until September 22nd. I can however show you the piece that didn't get in. Yes, there's always the one that got away. My friend Vicky Robertson and I made this from a selection of recycled items.  Her own gorgeous piece got into this year's show too, but whilst our combined entry didn't, we had fun combining skills and effort, and drinking wine when it was all over!

It was for the Illumination section where things light up under UV light, with the theme Float, Fly Flow. Thank you to Werner Kaffl for the photography and to Shonty Rogan for the studio and coordination to get our WoW pieces captured so brilliantly on one fine day in Trentham!

Danse de Lumière
Inspired by Guimard’s Chandelier

The float, fly, flow theme lends itself to a performance piece based on a reimagined interpretation of the French architect, Hector Guimard’s work of 1914. Three separate models, with wing spans and lightshade head pieces, come together in formation, to create multiple concepts for a chandelier. We scoured recycling centers and dumpsters with a portable UV light for the parts that make this entry up. Lampshades, a beer keg bladder, venetian blinds, curtaining rods, spa pool filters and lastly a harness repurposed from a previous UV finalist entry.

We purchased the black morph suits and split rings.

The entry is open to choreographic interpretation. All parts are easy to wear, UV reflective and provide huge scope for movement; floating, flying and flowing across the black stage. We considered the performance aspects of dance in this creation and what would work for performers to create the final ‘vision’ of light.

When it comes back to us, we will take it pieces and recycle the useful bits and back to the tip shop, all the rest will go. 

So- this first pic is not the entry- it was our inspiration!

 
Hector Guimard's Chandelier
It's hard to post a transforming, evolving dance, but try and use your imagination here!
The dance in three movements...



And here's what our models, Adrienne and James wore in the daylight. They were awesome even with the flu!





So, until I post again.... À bientôt!
x Fifi


1 comment:

Unknown said...

Congratulations xoxo