School teacher and artist, Craig Ellis, sustained a traumatic brain injury on Richmond Road, Ponsonby in 2007, when another driver failed to give way. It took Craig years to fully recover.
In September this year, 10 years since the accident, Craig suffered another concussion (fortunately milder this time) in an accident at the Auckland school where he teaches. For several weeks Craig relived symptoms similar to his 2007 injury, dealing with fatigue, headaches, information processing and memory issues, sound sensitivity and anxiety.
“Fragile’ is an art work that I originally produced in 2009,” Craig explains. “With no visual signs of the challenges I was going through, I remember thinking how helpful it could have been if the hospital had bandaged my head when I was released. People might have found it easier to understand what I was going through. My recent concussion brought hard times back and inspired the 'Fragile', 2017 series.”
'Fragile', 2017 is six hand-screen-printed images, on painted canvas backgrounds. Not hung in a gallery this time, but displayed out on the Ponsonby streets, where Craig was injured and recovered. The works are able to be viewed for one week from Monday 23 October at: 72 Williamson Avenue, 212 Richmond Road, Cnr Richmond Road/Westmoreland Street, Cnr 164 Ponsonby Road/Douglas Street, 314 Ponsonby Road.
Craig would like to give a big thanks to Jen and the team at Shout, who supplied the street poster advertising boards and helped bring this project alive.
craig@craigellis.co.nz; 021 335 761, www.craigellis.co.nz