Friday, March 26, 2010

Bodice Ripper




I have had three lovely parcels arrive on my doorstep this week. I knew what was in them before I cut my way through the packing tape; my art, come home to me from Nelson. Three Wearable Art bizarre bras that I have made over the years and purchased by WOW for display in the museum and use in mini shows. Two of them won second and third places in the year 2000 show, so I guess you can say, these garments have earned their living. WOW is needing to quit some artworks to make room for newer ones in their warehouse and I had the choice of having them back or letting WOW recycle them. Seeing as I teach Wearable Art workshops, I was thrilled to have them back so students can pour over the detail and see what standard of finish needs to be reached to pass muster. Luckily I have a large studio that they can reside in; I plan to hang them on the wall when they are not accompanying me elsewhere. You can see all my entries over the years here.

One of the pieces to return home particularly makes me smile. I made it in 2003 when I was full time at the Institute of Modern Letters doing an MA in Scriptwriting at Victoria University. After wrestling with my thesis proposal and wading through my reading list, I desperately needed a light-hearted diversion. I heeded WOW’s call as I have every year since 1995 and got to work. I decided it had to be on a literary theme but whilst studying, couldn’t stomach the thought of anything in a higher form than the most basic of popular fiction. ‘Bodice Ripper’ was born.

The idea was to have a Mill & Boon style book flying open from a woman’s chest. To be authentic I typed a few pages. ‘Artistic Passion’ started like this:

As the lift doors opened, Fifi smoothed her paint ridden palms down the side-seams of her spattered art shirt and took a deep breath, beating back the niggle of doubt that had invaded her rebellious confidence during the trip downtown. She had come this far, she couldn’t go back now! She stepped out of the lift and padded into the stark luxury of a marbled foyer. Fifi felt so out of place here in the business sector of Lambton Quay. Her pounding heart beat an unsteady rhythm as she contemplated her options. It was no use, the only way she would get funding for this project was to front up to the man himself; Jake Montana…

And on it went… Blah blah blah, sexy stuff and gorgeous but dangerous blokes. Blah blah blah black lace and beating hearts with undercurrents of tension and subterfuge. Blah blah blah standard romance fiction with racy bits and firm thighs…

I printed it all out, enlarging pages as I went that would form the basis of a torn paper mache bodice, then left them on my desk and went out to buy fruit flavoured condoms to hang out of the pages.
My then, 12 year old son, looked on quietly with a frown, and finally came out with two burning questions:

‘Fi, is that story for your scriptwriting course?’ and then, even more horrified, ‘Did you like, go and buy those condoms? From a chemist? At your age?!’ I doubled up laughing. Imagine the University dons being presented with that as my years work!

It was a productive one, that year at the IIML. I not only got my thesis done and my MA achieved with merit, but a piece of Wearable Art and my second kids novel Janie Olive- a Recipe for Disaster. Amazing what you can achieve when avoiding the task at hand.

The model in the photo here is Renata Hopkins, my fellow classmate and a talented writer.

Footnote: ‘Bodice Ripper’ is up for sale but not, fortunately ,
the novel.  I am working on a better piece of chick lit...



2 comments:

maggie@at-the-bay.com said...

WOW indeed.

Judith said...

gorgeous and clever... what a beautifully crazy and strangely poignant idea... yay for you...