It was a trip back to our old home town of Upper Hutt today to view the “Off the Wall – World of Wearable Art” exhibition with our SLG friends at Expressions Art and Entertainment Centre. WOW was started way back in 1987 by Suzie Moncrieff (now Dame Suzanne) in Nelson. The event has since grown into a very prestigious art and design competition.
Selecting the garments was a collaborative process between WOW® founder Suzie Moncrieff and Sir Richard Taylor from Weta Workshop. All garments are displayed so that visitors can get really “Up Close” to them. In addition each garment tells the story relating to the design, creativity and innovation required to produce wearable art to a successful competition standard.
Our group at Expressions
The first part of the exhibition was the Bizarre Bras on show. Everything from sharp, pointy metal bras which wouldn’t be out of place worn by a dominatrix wielding a whip and chains, to a bra fashioned from a pair of metal cockroaches. But what could be more bizarre than making a bra from your pet budgies? When Rocky and Rolly died, the maker fashioned a bra from the pair of green budgies, stuffing their tiny heads to use as the finishing touch on each bra cup. How bizarre – indeed!
We wandered around the exhibition, marvelling at the materials used for these way out costumes. Leather, wood, plastic, all types of metal, even corrugated iron was used, creating fantasies which stretched the viewers imagination. Unfortunately, photos were not permitted inside the exhibition.
Photo courtesy of Expressions website
Next stop was a trip down to Lower Hutt to visit to Zany Zeus, cheese-makers extraordinaire. Inspired by the way his Cypriot mother Lefki made halloumi cheese, Michael Matsis decided to research the art of cheese making. With a Food Technologist degree under his belt and years of perfecting the art of cheese-making, Michael’s dream became a reality in 2000 when he started up his first business Zany Zeus with his sister Meropi. The company produces delicious cheese and cultured products (mascarpone, sour cream, crème fraiche, cream cheese and yoghurt), and has recently added ice-cream to the range.
After a little cheese tasting, we couldn’t go home without purchasing some Chilli Feta and Smoked Brinza – both yummy. And then we just had to try one of those ice-creams each. Definitely a shop we will return to next time we are down this way – delicious products and very reasonable prices.
Enjoying a Zany Zeus ice-cream each
Then it was on to Petone for lunch – more eating. Sadly we had to leave the group to their afternoon adventures, we had another commitment and had to make our way home. But it was a great morning spent with our SLG friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment