Photospace Gallery - contemporary New Zealand photography
  • Exhibitions
  • Artists
  • About
  • Links
  • Photo books
  • Blog
  • A Month of Sundays - Responses to the Covid-19 Lockdown

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

24/9/2019

0 Comments

 
Gil Eva Craig exhibition poster 2019, New Zealand urban landscape photography, hotel rooms, Photospace Gallery contemporary New Zealand Photography
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 by Gil Eva Craig, Photospace Gallery Contemporary New Zealand photography, urban lanscape photography, urban plantings, urban wetlands, landscape photography in Wellington city New Zealand
From Waitangi series. Photo: Gil Eva Craig
From Waitangi series by Gil Eva Craig, Photospace Gallery Contemporary New Zealand photography, urban lanscape photography, urban plantings, urban wetlands, landscape photography in Wellington city New Zealand
From Waitangi series. Photo: Gil Eva Craig
From Waitangi series by Gil Eva Craig, Photospace Gallery Contemporary New Zealand photography, urban lanscape photography, urban plantings, urban wetlands, landscape photography in Wellington city New Zealand
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.
, Photospace Gallery contemporary New Zealand photography
From Hotel series, photo by Gil Eva Craig
, Photospace Gallery contemporary New Zealand photography
From Hotel series, photo by Gil Eva Craig
, Photospace Gallery contemporary New Zealand photography
From Hotel series, photo by Gil Eva Craig
, Photospace Gallery contemporary New Zealand photography
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.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Photography Matters II
    by James Gilberd, owner of Photospace Gallery

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    October 2021
    August 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    Friday Photo
    General
    Historic
    Puff Pieces
    Reviews

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Exhibitions
  • Artists
  • About
  • Links
  • Photo books
  • Blog
  • A Month of Sundays - Responses to the Covid-19 Lockdown