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Past World of Wearable Art entries

I am Storm of Progress


I am storm of progress man on a mountain

Angel on a mountain.

It was the Man Unleashed section 2009 and the first time Kas too was involved.

We had a new tool, a plasma cutter; no more oxyacetylene torch, no more hand cutting with pliers, this was fantastic.

I am Storm of Progress was a piece made from many metal cut outs of the words 'I am' referencing one of New Zealand's foremost painters Colin McCahon.

As we were working on the garment we were listening to Strange Angels by Laurie Anderson. The title track Strange Angels was inspired by the writings of Walter Benjamin (Theses on the Philosophy of History), in which he describes history as an angel always looking backwards, his face turned toward the past. The angel witnesses catastrophies but can do nothing to help, for a storm is blowing from Paradise; it is caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of death and destruction before him grows skyward.

This storm is what we call progress.

The song has a catchy little tune and the story is a very compelling and visual one, our entry was complete.

No need to find a model this time, Kas was up for it and up to the Cobb ranges we went. Angel on a mountain.

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