SPLASH OF COLOUR

WHY THE BODY ART AWARDS ARE HEADING OUT TO SEA

When Mem Bourke launched an arts competition for makeup and special effects artists, the Glenfield Tavern was the only place she could find to hold it. Bourke, an African tour guide turned event management specialist and classical homeopath, says back in the early 2000s the opportunities for makeup artists to show off their work were almost non-existent and no one really knew what body art was.

There’d been a bit of a fuss in the early 1990s when New Zealand makeup artist Joanne Gair painted film star Demi Moore for the cover of Vanity Fair, but other than that what could be achieved with a little paint, and maybe a prosthetic, was unknown in our part of the world.

When Bourke became aware of a burgeoning international scene, she liked what she saw.

“When I saw it, I instantly fell in love with it because it’s such an extreme art,” she recalls.

“The whole idea of being painted and becoming a different character or being able to help someone change into something new . . .”

So, she started at the Glenfield Tavern with the aim of having other competitions, possibly at pubs, in the south, east and west of Auckland culminating in a “grand final” in the central city. Artists — and there were a lot of them — encouraged Bourke to look for what they considered to be more appropriate venues, so she applied to the North Shore City Council.

By then, the country was gripped by Lord of the Rings film fever and waking up to the power of special effects including makeup. In 2006, Bourke got the green light to use the Bruce Mason Centre in Takapuna and remembers queues snaking down surrounding streets with punters eagerly waiting to get a look at body art.

This year, the New Zealand Body Art Award Showcase marks its 10th production, featuring the work of artists who want to pursue careers in makeup and special effects or those who are already well established. “The Water Element” is the theme, with entrants from all over NZ competing in six categories: water, pollution, floating, submerged, destroyed and resource.

Judges include Weta Workshop’s Sir Richard Taylor, who’s been a fan of the event since he first learned about it back in 2006.

“We’re a creative design and manufacturing studio and special effects are one of the foundations of that and my career,” says Sir Richard. “It’s imperative that, as a company, we support these endeavours.”

He says standards have been high since the competition’s inception and, as artists see more body art and get to hone their work, it gets better every year.

“The work that’s done here is as a good as anywhere in the world with the added bonus that artists are drawing on their Pacific place in the world and that’s something that others aren’t referencing so it makes for some unique and very beautiful creations.”

The trick, says Taylor and fellow judge Jonathan Smith, is to create designs, using bodies as canvases, that can be seen and marvelled at by audiences sitting in the back row of an auditorium. Sometimes intricate brushstrokes and clever close-up work aren’t going to work.

Don’t be fooled into thinking because everything goes well on the night that it’s an easy art form to pursue, says showcase producer and artistic director Poata Eruera.

He’s witnessed, backstage, the hours and hours of work that go into each intricate design. “It’s not just a case of painting a moustache on a model,” says Eruera.

That’s exactly what some of the artists involved indicated when they told Weekend about the inspiration behind their previous