Nel­son Design­er Gill Saun­ders was awar­ded The World of Wear­able Art’s Supreme Award this Fri­day for her design, Earth­ling (pic­tured). Tak­ing its inspir­a­tion from the rising pop­ular­ity of adult col­our­ing books and pro­mot­ing mind­ful­ness in a “world under increas­ing stress”, Earth­ling cel­eb­rates earth’s nat­ur­al won­ders in a beau­ti­fully craf­ted gar­ment made from EVA foam, acryl­ic paint, and wire.

Run­ner-up Chiaki Shim­izu’s SAMURAI GIRL is her first ever entry to the com­pet­i­tion, and also won the Avant-Garde sec­tion award this year. A strik­ing piece of inter­woven studs, shapes and metals, this power­ful design would abso­lutely stun on the bat­tle­field.

110 final­ist entries from twenty-three coun­tries walk the run­way dur­ing this year’s World of Wear­able Arts show. With over 100 dan­cers, per­formers and aer­i­al­ists as well as innu­mer­able amounts of crew, this show is abso­lutely incred­ible, invit­ing us all on an inter­galactic trip to six gor­geous plan­ets – Mars (& Bey­ond), Aotearoa, Open, Avant-Garde, Gold and Cafe Bizarre (Bizarre Bra).

Bloom­ing Proof! – Mars & Bey­ond – Photo cred­it: Steph­en A’Court.

 

The dan­cers act as sci­ent­ists in the first sec­tion of the show – Mars & Bey­ond - explor­ing the weird and won­der­ful ali­en creatures cre­ated by our design­ers. A young act­or wear­ing a robot suit is joined on stage by sev­er­al actu­al robots (styled some­what like NAS­A’s Per­sever­ance and Curi­os­ity rovers), and soon our samples are col­lec­ted, and we blast off to the next plan­et, Aotearoa.

The plan­et of Aotearoa is a won­der­ful mix of Māori taonga and sol­arpunk future. A full sized waka rolls onto stage, angu­lar but still unmis­tak­able, and we’re drawn into the world with dan­cers in deep red out­fits – whirl­ing and power­ful upon the stage. What is the showstop­per of this round of designs is Craig McMil­lan’s Child-Hood, as well as the win­ner of the cat­egory – a giant wooden wētā which is pushed along the stage by a per­former lying flat on their stom­ach inside it. It is non­sense, and won­der­ful; but that’s the appeal of WOW, isn’t it?

Child-Hood – Aotearoa – Photo cred­it: Steph­en A’Court.

 

Our third plan­et is Open - a digit­al odys­sey, where dan­cers dressed in light strips stride out into the audi­ence, scan­ning us. This world is tech­nic­al and cyber­punk-inspired, pulsing with light and strobe beats; hear­ing the THX sound and Crazy Frog (Axel F) in the sound track with­in the same three minutes nearly sends me to my grave. This cat­egory of designs ranges from the absurd to the deeply engin­eered, and our win­ner of the entire show – Gill Saun­ders’ Earth­ling – wows amongst them all.

SAMURAI GIRL – Avant-Garde – Photo cred­it: Steph­en A’Court.

 

The plan­et of Avant-Garde holds an under­ground civil­isa­tion, ruled over by a cult lead­er – our vocal­ist of this part: Jax­son Cook. As we land on the world, a con­tor­tion­ist bal­ances on a box in the centre of the stage, then draws a arch­ery bow with their feet, fir­ing an arrow towards the back of the stage. It is an incred­ible feat of bal­ance and strength. Avant-Garde is exactly what you’d expect it to be; wild and weird designs, unearthly shapes and mater­i­als.

Digit­al Ascen­sion of Kit­sune – Gold – Photo cred­it: Steph­en A’Court.

 

Our pen­ul­tim­ate stop on this whistle-stop tour of the uni­verse is Gold, a plan­et heav­ily inspired by ancient Egyp­tian styl­ings. Glit­ter­ing bright in the stage lights, these stun­ning designs play on pre­cious metals, sun wor­ship and celes­ti­al bod­ies.

Vir­tu­ally the Same – Bizarre Bra – Photo cred­it: Steph­en A’Court.

 

A delight­ful final piece takes us to Club Bizarre for the Bizarre Bra sec­tion of the show. Our vocal­ists from the entire show join each oth­er on stage along­side all our per­formers for a sec­tion that is as deli­ri­ous and diverse as the city it’s being staged in. Donna Sum­mer­’s I Feel Love pulses through the ven­ue as our per­formers strut and weave in a gender-bend­ing miasma of move­ment.

WOW is an show unlike any oth­er. The sheer scale and tal­ent with­in, both on and off stage, is utterly worth exper­i­en­cing. As a fiend for space and any­thing space-related, BEYOND abso­lutely tickled me, immers­ing me amongst a world where any­thing is pos­sible. Hats off to the cast and crew of this year’s event for an exper­i­ence that is utterly out of this world!