As we leave the venue a guy who has never seen a Montana World of WearableArt™ Awards Show before is releasing a gush of superlatives from his hitherto smacked gob. That’s how it is with Montana WOW^® Show virgins. But somehow the more you see the less whelmed you tend to be.

The basic disconnect between creative and innovative design and performance spectacle remains. The show would not exist without the creations that give it its name, and vice versa. Yet the staging offers no opportunity for the audience to get a close up appreciation of the ingenuity and artistry involved. And without the themed sections, the production elements would be rather random.

Only previous study of the programme and a good memory (given they have dispensed with mini torches that allowed us to check the details en route) would allow us to appreciate that among the 26 entries in the Air New Zealand South Pacific Section, cable ties are integral to both Bev Goodwin’s Warrior Princess and Andi Regan’s Bikini Bikina, or that Nicole Linnell’s Tiare, which means emptiness and represents a wedding dress that “expresses goodbye to single life”, is made of wire, beads and condoms. And even then we’re in no position to check out exactly how these transformations have been achieved.

There is, however, a good complementarity between the parading of the creations and the performance element, directed by Tanemahuta Gray, choreographed by Taane Mete. It features Te Roopu Tahiwi O Te Whanganui-A-Tara, whose chanted poi dance bring mana in their role of Kaumaatua, and culminates in a troupe of boys doing an unaggressive, celebratory haka..

As paraded on stage the 12 playful entries (+ 7 exhibition garments) for the Mainfreight Duffy Books in Homes Children’s Section, themed around The Magic of Books, fare better than most. Kaye Hellyar’s dragon bursts from a book in A Bid for Freedom. Ann Skelly’s witch keeps making a more dramatic entrance from Spellbound’s enchanted forest. Norelle Kendrick’s colorful Toy’s Are Us! claims its space well, although we have to read the programme to know it is made from foam and 17,900m, of handknitted yarn.

The performance element here centres round a huge book lowered from the flies that opens to produce a pop-up castle as paper-clad figures come to life (a creation of show designer John Verryt, I take it). It’s a stunning effect. But what with kings, queens, knights, maidens witches and dancers in various configurations, all culminating in a prince kissing a frog to liberate the princess within, while the colourful entries parade around them, over-load anxiety and a fear of missing something special begins to undermine my enjoyment.

There is less clutter in the CentrePort Illumination Illusion Section: Float, Fly, Flowwhere UV light picks out the 14 moving creations (+ 2 exhibition parments). I particularly enjoy Karl Van Der Wat’s floating slinkies, Unity, Erna & Karl; Sue Cederman’s tumbling leaves in Autumn Wind; Paul Bowe’s ‘now you see them now you don’t’ Synchronised Grannies; and Sarah & Ian Nelson’s big-bottomed blue lady floating in a green duck ring: Wanna See My Wobbly Bits?  

The American Express Open Section – which has no thematic boundaries in order to encourage originality and innovation in concept, construction and materials – is introduced with a ‘huddled masses’ image: dancers clad in flesh-coloured underwear evoking naked bodies in concentration camps. I take it this is down to artistic director and principal choreographer Malia Johnson and I find their centre-stage action is disturbing in a way that detracts from the 40 paraded entries.

Promiscua Le Plus Grande from veteran entrant Mike Ward offered a contrast with its “Barnum & Bailie’s genetically, bionically, surgically & nutritionally enhanced steam punk hermaphrodite” (why isn’t there an award for most inventive title and description?). I was looking forward to seeing Eve Gilliland’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, evoking the witched from Macbeth but on the night, on stage, the armour-like construction of brass, steel, bronze, leather and crystal makes little impact (despite being one of the heaviest entered this year, which Gilliland says “is a reminder of the burden of evil.”).

A couple of dare-devil pole acrobats (not specified in the programme) do their thing in the auditorium to introduce the Tourism New Zealand Avant Garde Section: Inspired by the Circus. Here the 36 entries are augmented by lights evoking a Big Top, Pierrot-style dancers in a muddled choreography that sometimes suggests performing animals and otherwise just looks messy, a French cabaret singer, performing dogs dressed as mini-elephants (dislike) … This culminates in the pole boys descending from the flies to twirl on a flaming rope while faces are projected on huge white balloons. Spectacular, and fighting all the way with the parading entries – which nevertheless would be tedious on their own: thus the perennial dilemma. But again, more is less in this section.

Respite returns with a beautifully created illusion of dancing stick figure to introduce the Gen-i Creative Excellence Section: The Art of Light where the challenge is to “create a work of wearable art that enhances or alters its appearance when it self illuminates”. Only a few of the 16 entries work well, I feel, with Rebecca Wendlandt’s Belle de la Mer – a siren “clothed by adoring jellyfish” (organza, muslin and LEDs) being especially memorable.  It’s during this that some Aliens, defined by white strip light, land, prance about the stage then invade the auditorium.  

The 47 (+1) entries in the World of WearableArt & Classic Cars Museum Bizarre Bra Section are a lot to take in even though the dancer-models all wear the same skirt and dance in unison to a Carmen Miranda drag act accompanied by some rather humdrum South American partner dancing. Denied close-up inspection, three depicting the droops and sags of advancing age stand out: 48DD40Long by Suzanne Allen, inspired by Pam Ayres’ “I should have looked after me tits”; Time Waits for Nobody by Jeanine Oxenous & Jayne Broome, in which I could not see the Dali-esque melting clock on the crutch-supported right breast; and As Time Ticks By by Judith Clements & Anna McNeill, which more successfully uses the melting clock motif.

When the ZimboyZ acrobat troupe suddenly take the stage they earn great audience acclaim because we are in a position to appreciate everything they have to offer. This very long sequence also features Te Radar miming to Barry Manilow’s ‘Copacabana’ and Vinyl Burns miming to ‘Quando Quando Quando’ (the Humperdinck version?) as the (unspecified) drag performer’s head-dress rises into an inverted tent.

Some arbitrary pyrotechnics bring the night to a climax and – echoing the finale of Slava’s Snow Show– some inflated fruit get tossed around the auditorium without achieving the elation of audience participation we felt at the St James last year.  

With so many good things happening in the show it seems curmudgeonly to be less than enthusiastic but as a stage show its patchy lack of cohesion renders it less than the sum of its multitudinous parts, except to those who have never seen anything like it before.

The winners may be found here.
_______________________________
For more production details, click on the title above. Go to Home page to see other Reviews, recent Comments and Forum postings (under Chat Back), and News. 

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer