Mandurah’s wearable art creations take over Perth

The cocoon was created by artist Louise Wells as part of this year’s Mandurah Wearable Art competition and uses white doilies to recreate the silk of a real cocoon.

From 11.45am, models wearing the extravagant and provocative garments for last year’s showcase will take over Murray Street Mall, surrounded by life performances, until the cocoon opens at 1pm to reveal a very special garment: La Mariposa.

La Mariposa, which stands for ‘the butterfly’ in Spanish, was a collective garment created by artists from across the country earlier this year.

The garment traveled from WA to New South Wales, Queensland and Northern Territory before returning home in time for the showcase.

Artists Deb Hiller, Sue Sacchero, Tanya da Silver, Larissa Murdock, Stephanie Powell, Philomena Hali and Louise Wells all contributed to the project adding their own personal touches to the design.

The initiative aims to raise awareness about Mandurah’s wearable art competition and showcase and promote this year’s event, which has attracted more than one hundred creations.

Participant artists in this year’s competition come from all corners of Australia and overseas, with entries from Queensland, Northern Territory, New South Wales and Tasmania, as well as countries like Romania, Switzerland and New Zealand

Some of the hand-made garments took hundreds of hours to produce and used materials such as milk bottles, stubby coolers, mop heads, bubble wrap and gum nuts among others.

This year’s showcase will be held at the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre on June 10 and 11.