Havelock North artist never does the same thing twice - except winning Supreme WOW Award

MacKenzie's garment, Wanton Widow, was recognised as the 2022 Supreme WOW Award winner on Friday night, with judges remarking it was "refined, sculptural and tells a story". Photo / Stephen Court

Havelock North artist and designer Kate MacKenzie never does the same thing twice with her art - except get top prize at the World of Wearable Art Awards.

MacKenzie was recognised as the 2022 Supreme WOW Award winner on Friday night, marking the second time she has won top prize at the international competition.

"It was definitely a shock - I had my own favourite, but then that became the runner-up," MacKenzie said.

MacKenzie's garment, Wanton Widow, floored the judges, who remarked it was "refined, sculptural and tells a story", and "perfectly captures what we mean when we say wearable art".

She pocketed $30,000 for winning the Supreme WOW Award, as well as another $6000 for winning the Open Section category.

MacKenzie also won the Supreme WOW Award in 2014 with another wearable art work, Poly Nation.

This makes her only the second competitor to win the accolade twice, after sisters Natasha English and Tatyanna Meharry of Christchurch won in 2018.

MacKenzie said she began work on Wanton Widow with an idea of what she wanted to make it out of: old furniture.

"I decided I wanted to use a china cabinet and then work through what I could make that would be the skirt, and then what could I do the bodice in."

"I came up with a sewing machine bodice concept, because they both look like they came from the same era."

Kate Mackenzie with some of her art in 2020. She has an upcoming exhibition in November for her oil on canvas art at Muse Gallery Havelock North. Photo / NZME

She said she thought about what the furniture meant and did some research.

"It got me thinking about the story as I was making it and how I could create a story out of this, and this idea of a widow in the 19th century feeling like fragile china, for display only, came to mind."

"It made me think about today and how far we have come from that, and how it's just quite wonderful today that we know as humans we can mourn openly and weep openly, because it is important, it is a good relief for us."

She explained that the contrast in style and theme between her two winning pieces was because she liked to change what she works with.

"I get bored easy; I just have a rule that I don't like to use the same material more than once."

"What I like is to invent new things, that's why I do it. It is the excitement of discovering something new and inventing something no-one has seen before, and I think you have more chance of doing that by using something different each year."

She said the biggest risk of doing something new is not knowing if it will work out in the beginning.

She said she had stepped away from the piece for several months and then returned to it with a fresh perspective.

"This particular garment came with its challenges - I had to change it in the last 24 hours, I did quite a bit of editing.

"I made the decision to rework the skirt and take more wood off the china cabinet. I felt it was a bit too clunky and it wasn't really flowing properly from the side.

"It was a bit silly of me, because we had so much time."

MacKenzie hasn't decided yet whether she will enter next year's WOW event, but she will be busy in the meanwhile with an upcoming exhibition in November for her oil on canvas art at Muse Gallery Havelock North.

A stage show is being held over the next two weeks at Wellington's TSB Arena showcasing all the top designs and garments from WOW 2022.

Organisers are expecting about 60,000 people to flood into the arena to watch the show, which includes a variety of performances including dancers, aerialists and kapa haka performers.