WOW factor

To walk through the Bishop Museum’s newest exhibition, "World of WearableArt," or WOW, is to walk through a cinematic dream world populated by warrior women, ocean deities and alien creatures. All of the pieces were made by a set of eclectic creators ranging from film costumers and stay-at-home moms to a saddle and harness maker and a commercial cleaner who twice won the competition leading up to the exhibition. 

Also part of the exhibit is a suit of armor, leather-clad goddesses, knit and ceramic creations and brassieres fashioned from taxidermy budgies and hedgehogs (no animals were harmed to create the show). 

That diversity, which celebrates the notion that everyone possesses creativity waiting to be unleashed, is the driving force behind bringing the exhibition — which continues through Feb. 1 in the Bishop Museum Castle Memorial Building — to Hawaii, according to Bishop Museum’s president and CEO, Blair D. Collis. 

"Bishop Museum is Hawaii’s ‘window to the world’ and the world’s ‘window to Hawaii,’" Collis said. "Our mission is to show Hawaii to the world through the best of Hawaii and Pacific arts, with exhibitions that inspire, educate, entertain and delight. 

"We serve a dual role in giving people who never get off the island access to important displays and exhibitions," he continued. "It’s also a way of challenging artists to think of what it means to test the boundaries of creative expression. It’s really looking at design through the mechanism of fashion, and doing a terrific job of bringing in not only fashion people, but woodworkers, metal artists and others who are inspired by the opportunity to create." 

WOW is New Zealand’s largest arts show, drawing 50,000 to the island country every September for a week of sold-out, two-hour wearable-art fashion shows. It launched in 1987 at the rural Nelson Provincial Museum, where Dame Suzie Moncrieff challenged designers to take "art off the wall and onto the human form." 

It began as a competition among local artists and fashion designers and has grown into an international competition. Although the pieces are displayed on manikins at Bishop Museum, a video alcove will show how the wearable designs came to life on a New Zealand stage in a circus atmosphere of music, dance and acrobatics.

The showcase includes 32 award-winning WOW garments, past and present. Among the pieces is Gillian Saunders’ "Inkling," a 2013 Weta Workshop Costume and Film Section winner. The prize for winning was an internship at Weta Workshop, the New Zealand design studio that has created the props, armor, costumes and special effects for films such as the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "Avatar." 

Weta Workshop artist Stuart Johnson also has a piece in the show: "Persephone’s Descent." It depicts the mythical Greek heroine’s descent into the underworld, wearing the armor of Hades. The work won the Supreme WOW Award in 2002.  

Saunders was in town to help set up the exhibition and said her work was based on her fascination with tattooed women in old-time circuses. "I love tattoos and started thinking about the commingling of blood and ink, and what would happen if the ratio of ink became so high that the images started bursting out of skin in a 3-D transformation." 

At first glance her piece appears to be crafted from wood or leather, but she used pieces of hand-painted EVA foam, the same material used to make yoga mats. 

Saunders, who studied textile and furniture design, said she was lured to enter by the possibility of securing the Weta Workshop internship, which she said was inspiring. She was able to work on the film "Thunderbirds," and continues to work in film, theater and television. 

Sorry to burst your bubble about the fun side of developing props and weaponry for film. At Weta, she said, "Business is business. Time is money, so there were no sword fights." 

But she said, "I learned lots of new techniques. The competition presents lots of opportunities for young designers. It’s quite incredible."

In addition to several cash prizes, this year’s prizes included a one-month internship at Cirque du Soleil’s international headquarters in Montreal. 

For Collis, the ultimate success of the exhibition would be to see artists from Hawaii entering the competition. To that end, artists will be able to leave their names and email addresses to receive an entry packet. 

The closest Hawaii comes to its own WOW is the MAMo Wearable Arts Show presented by Maoli Arts Month every summer. That show, celebrating the creativity of Pacific island artists, has welcomed participants from Hawaii, Tahiti and New Zealand. 

"(WOW is) potentially a model for Hawaii," said Collis, who praised the New Zealand government for supporting the showcase with grants that allow the exhibition to travel. Hawaii is the first state to host the traveling exhibition, which will later travel to Seattle’s Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum. 

"They’re dedicated to putting New Zealand culture and the arts, and history, at the center of who they are as a people," he added. "They have a vision of culture and the arts as a driver of economic development, education and social well-being." 

Such a message is important in the United States, where the economy often drives people away from the arts. Beth Kopf, an American artist living in New Zealand, who was also here to set up the show, said, "Growing up in the ’70s in Colorado, people were quite practical, so thinking of becoming an artist was out of the question." 

Putting her creative instincts behind her, she became a nurse, but her need to create resurfaced after moving to New Zealand, and she entered the WOW competition in 2006 and petitioned ever since to join the organization. She became a member of WOW’s Wardrobe Team in 2011, helping models to get in and out of the ensembles for the shows, which often entailed detailed instructions from the artists as to layering the pieces. 

She said the piece she would most like to wear is New Zealand artist Sarah Thomas’ "American Dream," an ode to American classic cars expressed with a sleek 1950s Cadillac chassis rendered in vinyl, leather, papier-mache and plastic. 

Living so close to the powerful pieces, Kopf said she and other members of the wardrobe team treat them like living creatures. "We walk in and say, ‘Hi, girls!’ We talk to them and they’re so nonchalant. Every time we’re setting up a new show, they say, ‘Here we go again.’" 

Those who find themselves struck by the creative spirit at the show will be able to dress up paper dolls that will be pinned to a wall, thus providing a secondary show of wearable art. 

And with Halloween around the corner, those fishing for ideas will find plenty of inspiration here. 

More images are on view at honolulupulse.com/fashiontribe.