Gil Eva Craig - 4-19 October 2019 at Photospace Gallery, Wellington NZ

Gil Eva Craig exhibition poster 2019

Waitangi Series - Gil Eva Craig
 
In Waitangi Park, central Wellington, there is an urban wetland I have been photographing over the last six years. It is near to the site of the original Waitangi lagoon, which was used for centuries by Māori for food gathering, as there were eels, fish and shellfish within it. It was also a source of fresh water, and where waka were launched into the sea.
 
The topography of the wetland is always changing, from a lush rippling sea of green grass through to barren dry husks and stalks. The city council come in and trim back the reeds, hoons toss empty JD premix cans into the crannies between rocks, and  patches of the tall grass are regularly squashed down by human activity.
 
This set of four images is from a series of nine, which I took  from late summer and into winter of this year. The wetland is a living entity, and these images capture it's vitality and energy, and I also hope, something of its past spirit.

From Waitangi series. Photo: Gil Eva Craig

From Waitangi series. Photo: Gil Eva Craig

From Waitangi series, photograph by Gil Eva Craig

Welcome! (Hotel series) - Gil Eva Craig
 
Three years ago I toured the United States with a band* as their sound engineer. We started in Seattle, and the first night we were in a really nice hotel, so nice that I took a photo with my Samsung S5, looking into my room from the entrance. I decided  I'd take a photo of every hotel room I stayed in on the tour. From that angle.
 
The next day we drove over a snowy pass and emerged in a small, fully fogged up town called Yakima. The hotel was not as nice as the night before. There was a wifi network in the hotel environs with the password 'BestDrugsRoom12'. At breakfast, a hooker sidled into the dining room for a furtive coffee and to tuck some toast into her handbag, before being bundled out the door by the manager. 
 
I was sharing with Bec, one of the performers, and we were both feeling jet-lagged and a little disorientated as we had come from a blazing hot NZ summer to snow and a dirty fog that didn't lift for three days.  Bec arranged a banana and two plums into "meat 'n' two veg" in the fruit bowl in our room and we laughed hysterically and disproportionately over this. 
 
At night I jammed a chair under the door handle because there was a drunk in the carpark who kept asking me what my name was every time I went out. As it happened, that was one of only two really weird places we stayed on this tour – the other was in Florida. The Florida motor lodge had a swimming pool that had been filled in with gravel and deck chairs placed upon it, a ‘Trump for President’ sign, and the rooms had an uneasy  bouquet of possible unsolved murders. There was another sign that said 'maids wanted, apply within'.  That night I shared with Dee and we jammed a chair under the door and stayed up talking for ages.
 
*The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra.

From Hotel series, photo by Gil Eva Craig

From Hotel series, photo by Gil Eva Craig

From Hotel series, photo by Gil Eva Craig

From Hotel series, photo by Gil Eva Craig

Gil Eva Craig has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions at Photospace Gallery since 2013. This exhibition runs in conjunction with one by Ann Kilpatrick from 4th to 19th October, 2019, at Photospace Gallery, 1st floor, 37 Courtenay Place, Wellington New Zealand.