Supporting Acts Dampen Spectacular Body Art Show
by al armiger
The actual body art content and presentation of it in the show was amazing in all categories and appropriately awarded by an impressive panel of judges. I did find though that some models had spoiled the canvas of their artists by the wearing of underwear that puckered in their buttocks or otherwise distracted from the smoothness of the work. You can't be that prude and be in such a show. Wear a thong or less for goodness sake; as many did. Probably the biggest missed opportunity was the tall stilted alien warrior who initially made a great impact by his size and presence. But this was to quickly dissipate due to the artists lack of attention to detail in getting credible coordination between the prophylactic and painted components of the costume. Again highly visible (albeit fitting) shorts with some poor paintwork attempting to knit the rubberized extremities together. Maybe some contrasting fur or the like in the non prophylactic areas would have worked better than the poor paintwork. . Star Boy made an impressive opening, but their closing acts lack of finesse coupled with an accompanying troupe of Maori warriors who antics quickly degenerated to boyish antics, brought neither mana to themselves nor pleasure to the audience. I also experienced a similar cringe earlier when a separist award was to be presented for, a by its very nature, a racist category of upcoming Maori artist. In what is otherwise a very open, in every sense of the word, platform for competitive artists, why is it necessary to nurture this patronizing racism and hijack a captured audience into being party to it. Keep this competition truly open with out patronizing of any particular group, race, gender or political persuasion and tidy up the supporting acts and you will continue to grow and be embraced and supported by the wider public. Favourite Moments The mini squatting creature with with its large head and unsynchronized eyes along with the fabulously created shrimp and its life like but somehow comical movement were truly crowd favourites endorsed by the panel of judges. But I will always be impressed by the powerful impact of clever paintwork on the contours of bare flesh and in this category it must have been challenging for even the judges to pick a winner from such a line up of remarkable entries. Al Armiger
Furthermore Star Boy himself failed dismally to read the audience pouring from the room before him