Wearable Art Show 2012 & Runway Challenge

Public Energy presents
The 2012 Runway Challenge & Wearable Art Show

One exceptional evening exploring the sartorial genius of Peterborough visual artists and designers. All proceeds benefit Public Energy’s performing arts programming with Peterborough artists, such as the annual Emergency festival. There are 3 elements to this year’s event, modeled on the success of last year’s Mad Mod Men event.

1) THE RUNWAY CHALLENGE
6 artist/designers + 6 local retailers + one month = 6 highly original designs
the catch: the retailers have NOTHING to do with fashion or fabric.

This year’s artists and businesses:

Alana Batten ~ Custom Copy Print
Krista Boyd ~ Lakefield Pantry
Martha Cockshutt ~ Sullivan’s Pharmacy
Melanie McCall ~ Pammett’s Flowers
Beth McCubbin ~ East City Flower Shop
Victoria Wallace ~ RONA

Max Price designing for the MC with Cahill’s Fur

Watch the Challengers reveal their business partners (soundtrack by Nino Roto!)

2) THE WEARABLE ART SHOW
a showcase of local artists work strutting, striding, slinking.. upon the catwalk.
Interested? Get involved! Are you an artist with work(s) to strut?
email admin@publicenergy.ca

3) THE BIG ART SMACKDOWN
Artists duking it out in the ring- battling for supremacy and your bids.
Celebrated artists will create live works of art before your eyes.

Runway Challenger Biographies

Krista Boyd (Fallen Debutante); Model: Taysha Paige
Krista Boyd is the mastermind behind Fallen Debutante fashion accessories. A lifelong student of sewing and fashion,she attended Blanche Macdonald Centre in Vancouver for design. Krista’s aesthetic is detail oriented and each unique piece is the focal point of any frock.
Krista’s other work includes organizing local craft shows, costume design for community theatre and custom piece work for numerous businesses & customers.
Being paired with Lakefield Pantry, inspiration abounds! Krista is excited to work with candy and experiment with various textile ideas.

Martha Cockshutt; Model: Nadine Changfoot
Martha Cockshutt is a Peterborough-based theatre artist. She has been designing sets and costumes for theatre, dance, and performance for over 25 years. After receiving a degree in Cultural Studies from Trent University, she joined Magic Circus Theatre, eventually becoming resident designer and touring with the company to Greece. She was a founding member of 4th Line Theatre, and spent nine seasons designing, building and performing with the company. In 1999 Artspace (Peterborough’s artist run centre) mounted “Sartor Resartis” a retrospective exhibition of Martha’s design work. With Em Glasspool, Martha co-founded Mysterious Entity Theatre, working as a designer and co-producer. She wrote “Domestic Science” for the company as part of “Skirting the Edge”, which she designed. Martha has been costuming dance since 1987, focusing on work with independent artists. Recent credits include “How to Wrestle an Angel” (Marie-Josée Chartier), “Atlas Moves Watching” (Bill James), and “Canticles” (David Earle) for Old Men Dancing, “Oskorei” for Ryan Kerr, and “Performances May Be Permanent” for Kate Story. Upcoming design work includes “The (Post)Mistress” (Tomson Highway) for Okaadenigan Wiingashk.

Melanie McCall; Model: Max Price
Melanie McCall is a local Peterborough resident who is a practicing artist over the last 10 years in and around the Peterborough area. Her work is influenced by her textile background and extends from mixed media to fabric, clay, plastics and wood. She has had the pleasure of designing for many local artists, theatre productions, dance performances and performers. Melanie chooses to speak through her art practices and give a voice not only to her story, but to mentor and collaborate with many talented individuals to create stories within our community and abroad. This is Melanie’s first wearable art show in Peterborough, but her third in course and she hope to top her experience from previous years. Melanie would like to thank Pammet’s Flower Shop for their contribution, encouragement and support.

Beth McCubbin; Model: Vicky Paradisis
Beth has been creating and designing sculptural and functional works of art for over 20 years. Her preferred mediums are clay, concrete and metal; however, she enjoys the challenge to work with many different materials and often creates works of mixed media. Beth has no real experience making costumes or clothing, other than a dress which she fashioned out of recycled plastic bags a couple of years ago and some steel, copper and velvet crowns which were once made for a theatre performance. She has always been a lover of high fashion.
Beth has a botany degree from many years ago and is an avid gardener, so the prospect of creating a wearable art piece out of plants and flowers is of particular interest to her.

Victoria Wallace; Model: Angela Sorensen
Victoria Wallace is a multi-media artist working, exhibiting and conducting workshops in acrylic, encaustic, watercolour and sculptural media. She had a successful mural and specialty paint finish company in Toronto for over 25 years. Her extensive commissions include work for television, film, theatre, restaurants, businesses and private collections across Canada and internationally. Her paintings reflect the “trompe l’oeil” influence mastered through years of mural painting. Victoria infuses luminance within her subjects, which range from high realism to abstraction. Victoria’s website

Alana Batten; Model: Margaret Allen
Alana Batten is an aspiring artist, designer and musician attending PCVS in that school’s Integrated Arts programme.  Alana has been increasingly involved with drawing, painting and photography for as long as she can remember, and although she is just 14 years old, she had her first solo exhibition of paintings earlier this year at the Ritz Deli North. In addition, Alana has been designing and making her own clothes for the past few years, and she is both thrilled and nervous to have been invited to participate in this year’s Runway Challenge.  Having attended previous Runway Challenge shows, Alana jumped at the chance to tackle the creative problems and possibilities involved in making her design while working with unorthodox materials that make this project such a unique event. Alana plans to attend art school in Halifax at the Nova Scotia School of Art and Design following her high school career.

Photos from the Runway Challenge 2011 by Wayne Eardley 
Taken at The Sapphire Room