Wellington Finalists Announced for 2010 Montana World of WearableArt Awards Show [WOW Ltd]

Literary and lyrical inspirations are peppered through Wellington designers’ entries in the 2010 Montana WOW® Awards, adding to the artistic creativity of the capital’s favourite dramatic spectacle.

The Montana World of WearableArt™ Awards Show is in its 22nd year and is a world-renowned design and art event attracting ever-growing interest and amazing works of art from across the globe.

A stunning exhibition of creative ingenuity, the Montana WOW® Awards Show brings to life artworks designed for the human form, showcasing a near-boundless display of imagination that builds on the anthropological aspiration to be more than we are.

Highlights from the 2010 Montana WOW® story so far…

• The 191 garments chosen for the stage is the largest contingent ever

• The level of artistry grows year on year with incredible materials ranging from hundreds of individually styled metal parts to 17,900 metres of yarn.

• One in three garments chosen for the show are from international designers across four continents, including a record 23 from India.

• WOW® designers range from dentists to architects, jewelers to sculptors, fashion designers to business analysts, students and retirees

• Designers compete for $100,000 in prizes including the Supreme Award and the highly coveted Weta Award selected by Oscar-winning designer Sir Richard Taylor

The 2009 Supreme Award was won by an international designer, David Walker from Alaska, who received more than $25,000 in prizes for his classical gown entry Lady of the Wood.

With the initial selection complete the 2010 Montana WOW® Awards judging continues on two more occasions in September before opening night on 23 September at TSB Arena in Wellington.

Joining WOW® Founder Suzie Moncrieff on the panel this year is New Zealand kinetic sculptor Phil Price, and former fashion designer Doris de Pont who is synonymous with the New Zealand fashion scene.
"The judging process for WOW has been totally captivating,” says Phil Price. “It is a privilege to witness the sophistication of this art genre and the designers are really demonstrating the synthesis of elements that any good design requires. We are seeing really inventive solutions that are playful and intelligent.”

The choreography for the 2010 show will showcase 191 finalists who have been chosen to compete in the Montana WOW® Awards Show from an array of more than 300 entrants from all over New Zealand and the world.

International designers from 25 countries submitted entries for the Montana WOW® Awards and 61 garments from Germany, Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, Netherlands, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, and USA were selected to join local entries on the WOW® stage.

Designers Anne Carrington, Pippa Ensor and Anna Synge use a blend of environmental awareness and their nous as architecture graduates to create Foil Toil, a garment intricately knitted from nylon fishing line and fuse wire. The first time entrants say the glistening beauty of the materials contrasts the harsh physical and environmental impact of the garment.

A departure from her profession of growing Christmas trees, Catherine Anderton’s doomed bunch of discarded roses are a tribute to Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand. In the American Express Open Section You Don’t Bring Me Flowers has sad undertones of a woman bound to a life of disappointment. Using leather, velvet, paints and inks, the garment is an oversized brick bouquet to love.

The near-reality of a child’s imagination comes through in Wellington artist Ann Skelly’s entry in the Mainfreight Duffy Books in Homes Children’s Section: The Magic of Books. Spellbound dredges up her own memories of witches and enchanted forests in a garment built from canvas, foam, wood and wire.

Kapiti artist Rita Schrieken uses detritus from local beaches to recreate the image of a refugee sea urchin in her Air New Zealand South Pacific Section garment The Urchin. The ragged apparition of a kina driven from the sea to “live rough” on land is brought alive in the driftwood spikes and pumice stone materials, playing on the concept of a “street urchin”.

Shakespearean inspiration from Lord and Lady Cawdor of Scotland led Otaki jewellery designer Eve Gilliland to create her American Express Open Section entry in the vein of the Bard’s own words. Named after a Macbeth quote Something Wicked This Way Comes is a remarkable serpentine armour-like construction of metal, crystal and leather. Due to its materials, the garment is one of the heaviest entered this year, and is a reminder of the burden of evil, Gilliland says.

The effort and inspiration that goes into the incredible garments that make it to the final stage of the Montana WOW® Awards is the backbone of the event.

WOW® then creatively weaves these painstakingly crafted garments of a world’s worth of designers’ dreams and epiphanies into an eleven show season (including the newly released matinee at 2pm on Saturday 2 October) opening 23 September. This choreographed dramatic live performance is seen by an audience of more than 43,000 people in Wellington, New Zealand’s creative capital and the ultimate place to tell the global story of the weird and wonderful World of WearableArt™.