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Issue 54 – October 2015 – QUEEN MARGARET CALLING
Year 13 Materials Technology students have
been WOWing Wellingtonians with their
Wearable Art window displays.
Wearable Art
WOWs
Wellington
Fiona Curtis’ project ‘Celebrating 150 years of Alice in Wonderland,’
As part of the citywide celebrations
of the WOW Wearable Art
Awards, the students had their
work installed around town for the public
to enjoy.
Year 13 student Fiona Curtis’
project ‘Celebrating 150 years of Alice in
Wonderland,’ was displayed in the front
windows of the Wellington City Library.
A literature lover, Fiona wanted to create
something themed around books which
appealed to people of all ages from children
to grandparents.
“I chose Alice in Wonderland because
the story transports the viewer back to their
childhood,” Fiona comments.
The display did not come without its
challenges as Fiona grappled with using a
laser cutter for the first time.
“I had to do a lot of testing first. Lots of
the pages would either burn too much or
not enough to give it the golden colour that
I wanted.”
Fiona was excited to see it finally go up
in the public library and has enjoyed the
process despite a few stressful moments.
“Working for such a high-profile client
has been a completely different experience
to our other projects - it was great to get
a taste of what working in the real world
would be like.”
Brittany Eng, Caitlin Ritchie, Gabriella
Shea and Bridgette Midgley created displays
with the theme WWI Remembrance for the
Te Papa front foyer.
Gabriella created a garment that told
a story about correspondence between
soldiers and loved ones at home.
“Letters are a connection between
home and heart and was for soldiers in the
trenches the only form of communication in
those times,” Gabriella explains.
A special feature of her work is the paper
mache bodice covered in over 300 authentic,
pre 1950’s postage stamps from around the
world.
Caitlin was inspired by New Zealand
monuments, which honour those who
served in WWI.
She used laser cutting technology to cut
crosses from MDF wood and to inscribe the
names of towns.
“The crosses symbolise the fallen and
stand for remembrance of their sacrifice,”
Caitlin comments.
Head of Technology, Barbara Knight,
says the design brief for this project was
to capture the ‘WOW factor’ and therefore
grab people’s attention.
“For example Brittany Eng’s
contemporary korowai cloak has used over
1000 plastic bags, which she has melted
and painted by hand then layered to create
poppies.”
Students completed NCEAAchievement
Standards as part of the techonlogy project,
which spans the entire year.
Below from left to right: Gabriella Shea,
Bridgette Midgley, Caitlin Ritchie and
Brittany Eng.