FOR someone who professes to prefer the relaxing, peaceful mountain life, Maleny’s Viera Keogh appears to push herself to the edge and back again with alarming regularity.
The Slovakian-born creative has just won Best Headpiece at the Australian Wearable Art Festival for an extravagant design celebrating her heritage with the fusion of hundreds of Australian and European native flowers.
“Slovakian Epopee of Reesville Inspired by Slovakian heritage and artistic embroidery of my grandmother, I’ve created my vision of folklore wedding costumes by marrying two worlds of flowers – Australian and European natives – mostly grown in my garden and sustainably harvested on our land in Reesville,” Viera said.
“Naturally dried they are tied, stitched or glued onto recycled natural materials, wire and garments.”
What started as a bet with a friend quickly escalated into a seven-month labour of love as she designed and created a 2kg floral headpiece consisting of hundreds of native dried flowers, wheat, and grasses – sourced from her own garden from Eco Heart Nursery’s stock of native plants, as well as friends’ gardens. She used recycled material including tablecloths, a skirt and trousers to help bring the creation to fruition.
“My friend told me ‘you shall enter this’ and I said ‘no way’,” Viera explained.
“But I love challenges. I love to test my boundaries, so I drew a concept and put together samples. I quickly constructed a piece of the head dress, wrote the description of what I would create and just got it in before the deadline.”
“The whole concept were inspired by my grandmother’s embroidery.
“She used to make traditional folklore costumes and wear them and I was lucky enough to inherit them.”
While not as skilled in embroidery, the costumes, with their, rich, colourful and floral patterns were just the inspiration Viera needed for her headpieces.
Viera said she was also inspired, and calmed, by her models – 15-year-old twins, Darcy and Sian Ellis – who she said were the consummate professionals.
They crater their own choreography, dancing to a traditional Slovakian wedding song (which Viera had sung at her own wedding).
“I couldn’t have chosen better models,” she said. They were really young professionals, made the whole choreography by themselves and worked so well together.”
She said the award was a great honour.
“The experience, acknowledged and who know what the future brings is the best prize. The feeling could not have been better,” she said.
