Tableau Vivant, the 15th BODYSPECTRA, a one-off body painting extravaganza by CityVarsity’s art department students on 24 October is previewed by Lucinda Jolly.
For the last fifteen years Capetonians have been captivated and intrigued by a staged body painting extravaganza by CityVarsity art department students.
This year however marks a change. It’s a change motivated by audiences who felt they don’t get to see the creations up close. The organisers have taken this seriously and this BodySpectra will follow the style of a “living picture” hence the title Tableaux Vivant. The “living picture” which was tremendously popular during the Victorian era was theatrically lit and composed of silent and motionless actors or artist’s models who were posed according to a theme.
The audience will be met at the entrance of the college by fire dancers and brought to the studio where they will be further entertained by contortionists and acrobats body painted in a granite finish. Here they will gather around the edges in an atmosphere of swirling dry ice fog among spot lit and draped living sculptures. Once the BodySpectra models are ceremoniously unveiled and they have performed, the audience will be able to move among the models and have an opportunity to intensely examine the various applications such as prosthetics, stenciling and body painting.
BodySpectra was introduced into the Motion Picture Production course 15 years ago as a platform to showcase the skills obtained over the year particularly body painting and prosthetics- and also to give the students a taste to of the high pressure of the industry they will enter.
This definitive event which drew many of the students to study at the college is not only their final year exam but also the highlight of their year.
It’s a one chance, 9 hour initiation or rite of passage- against a background of sweat and hairspray- starting at 7 am in the morning. The first years are nervous because the event is unknown territory and the second and third years because they know precisely what lies ahead for them.
This year’s theme, chosen by the students, is a visual interpretation of a piece of poetry. Poems range from poet laureate Ted Hughes’s Thought Fox to a lesser known ones such as Death by Chocolate by Kim Merryman. If you’re thinking that poems are a bit naff for such an event think again. BodySpectra revels in unexpected dark twists and the odd. Kara Pretorius’s Thought Fox is a fox in a body painted pin stripe suit, Lisa Maclean Wakelin’s character Sandy, the girl in Death by Chocolate is a bright pastel creation with a Mexican sugar skull, a skeleton and organs made of fake candy including cupcakes and ice cream. And Kaylee Pereira’s The Lady of Shalott morphs into a Victorian Tarantula based on the vivid blue and yellow Gooty Sapphire spider.
I caught up with top 3rd year student Andrea Smith whose Puff the Magic Dragon is a move away from her usual tendency towards the dark to multi coloured mythical dragon in a parrot bright palette of yellow, green and red with black and white. Finding her idea as opposed to its constructing it was the hardest part. Now the scariest thing for Andrea is that that she won’t finish it on time.
When so much of what students will create is dictated it by the demands of the industry being able to create something personal is a pleasure. Andreas has fashioned her dragon’s head out of papier mache and its horns and frilled neck show the influence of the Triceratops dinosaur. She has added an unlikely set of large blue ears and a dramatic 7 meter long curving tail which curves upward into a circle like the Orobus. Andrea She wanted “to go out with a bang” and to date and the tail is the biggest thing she has ever done.
She is excited about the Tableau Vivant approach compared to the previous “catwalk stagey vibe” where audiences saw the work for a few magical seconds. Now they get to really looks at what has been created.” Its ice to have work really appreciated” she said
The 4 prize categories will be judged by award winning costume designer Penny Simpson.
See you there.
WHERE: City Varsity, 18 Roeland Street, Cape Town 8001
WHEN: 8pm 24 October 2014
INFO: 021 4666839 info@cityvarsity.co.za. Visit
This preview by Lucinda Jolly first appeared in The Cape Times
