| BodySpectra 2012 - Behind the night | |||
| By Warren Glam Tuesday October 16, 2012 |
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City Varsity’s annual Body Spectra event was a huge success on Friday night and could’ve rivalled any of the country’s top shows. That’s not a bad result for something that relied almost entirely on the creative talents of the college’s Picture Make-Up and Motion Picture Production Design students. However, with their passion and drive, it’s hardly a surprising one.“I didn’t do other stuff,” said first year student, Henriette Neumann, when talking about her life in the weeks leading up to the event – now in its thirteenth year. Instead, she spent her time fretting about constructing a piece of art that would capture 2012’s theme of metamorphosis on a human form using paints and props. It was the same for her classmate, Andrea Smith, who said she’d, “wake up thinking about it (her design), think about it and work on it during the day, and go to bed thinking about it.” Fortunately, neither of them was alone during this demanding time because, like other students, they were able to count on the bonds they’d formed with their classmates to pull them through. “You vibe off the ones having a good day,” said third year, Roxanne Boehme. However, the Body Spectra is still the most important brief on their calendar. So naturally, it sparked everyone’s competitive spirit. And the head of City Varsity’s Art Department, Hansie Visagie, explained that this side to things normally plays out in the same way. It starts with first years trying to show up the seniors who, having done all of this before, are almost blasé about the process. But against that, third years are eager to show the newcomers what they can do with the extra skills and training. All of this makes for, “a very nice cycle of one inspiring the other,” said Hansie. And proof that the cycle works was clear right from the start of the show when the first models walked out in the art students’ creations. The bar was silent and camera phones were out as the beautiful, fantastical, even grotesque forms strutted and snaked down the walk way to a background of stage smoke rising through multi-coloured light beams. The general standard was incredibly high. That being said, some pieces stood out and drew wild applause. One of these was the tribal, avant-garde head piece designed by Megan Wiley; another, the crooked, wrinkled branches worn by Sven Eric Muller, who popped and locked his body in perfect sync with the beats in Awolnation’s hit song, ‘Sail’. And some, like Henriette Neumann’s geisha with a cherry blossom tree branch for an arm, were notable for how accurately and artistically they interpreted the theme of metamorphosis. Nevertheless, the night needed winners for the three competition categories, and ended with Roxanne Boehme claiming the title for the best 100% body paint piece. Henriette Neumann won in the 80% paint, 20% prosthetic category, while Owen Els took the 50% paint, 50% prosthetics title. The best models were Sven Eric Muller, who worked with the artist, Juliane Muller, and Bianka Hartenstein, who modelled for Sylvia Eichhoff. |
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