Series of 5 gowns made for the Changelings Fashion Parade held in 2005 at the Mars Lounge in Sydney.
Deborah Veronica West uses the detritus of our daily lives – plastic bags, forgotten leaves, copper scourers – and spins them like magic filigree into beautiful and unusual forms. Often, but not always, these works adorn human bodies like glittering gowns. A mixed media artist, Deborah has created a range of ‘plastic bag’ garments that challenge our notion of haute couture and its preciousness on the catwalk. These works are beautiful, glamorous, and turn the wearers into Hollywood starlets. Yet they’re also, technically speaking made of refuse, garbage. In this sense, Deborah’s work, (like the ancient fable of Rumplestilskin, quite literally create something from nothing, or straw onto fairytale gold. Changelings Directed and Curated by Raymond Thomas Hines.
Swan Lake - created from 999 white recycled plastic bags
My fair Lady - created from melted formed recycled plastic bags
Bridget Bardot - created from cut recycled plastic sheet / 1980 Moet & Chandon's Dom Perignon, Antique style cigarette holder
Greta Garbo - created from recycled plastic bubble wrap, fan/handbag containing 6 disposable cameras thrown to the audience
Mona - created from plastic net and recycled plastic bags, paris g-string featuring the Caroselle de Eiffel Tour and the Eiffel Tour
The first public strip tease occurred on February 9, 1893 when Mona, an artist's model jumped nude onto a table for art students. The Moulin Rouge, which had opened just a few years before, picked up on the idea... and strip-tease was born.
(model, Susan Rathbone )
Mars Lounge – Changelings Gallery, image numbers 15,16,17,18,21,27.