Living Costumes

When Ashley Peevor showed us his you-gotta-see-them-to-believe-them creations, we knew this was world-class awesomeness. Over the last seven years, he’s been creating wearable living art, painstakingly growing grass in material he fashions into costumes, transforming humans into animated sculpture. Ashley sews the pieces of sorta-sod together until they become a green grass garment that completely envelops a person, while still enabling the wearer to move. When performers don these costumes and roam around the grounds of an art festival or some other unlikely social event, people either squeal with delight and want to hug and touch their new foliaged friend, or they freak out and flee.

Now, Ashley wants to work on a prototype that anyone could grow for themselves. (Admit it, you want to grow one for next Halloween.) He says he’s developed the design and made the instructions baby-simple for people with limited knowledge and experience. The Awesome Without Borders grant will help build a prototype Ashley will send to someone to try out. If they succeed in planting, growing, and assembling it, ta-da! You could be walking around in your own grass suit in the not-too-distant future!

You’ve got to check out the news coverage so you can see the grass people in action. (links to those) When people ask us what kind of projects this Awesome Without Borders chapter likes to fund, a grow-it-yourself-grass-person costume is pretty much our idea of perfection, right up there with the classic Jafflechutes or the Infinity Burial Project’s mushroom death suits. Could your awesome idea be next? Apply here.