or never and,  brings together two contrasting yet connected fundamentals. Both act as metaphors, and both are available to us. We watch friends living overseas taking odd jobs and spending weekends in strange, exciting places and longing for adventure, yet they message you on a social app, "Your party looked so cool, wish I had a family like yours, I miss my dog". It's moments like this where you realize that sometimes your choices are made for you and that you either stay put and are enveloped by your community or you fly away to be a little bit lost in the world, happy, but distant. Either way, you can't be both, this is not a threat or concern but more of a gentle reminder, that both, in their own time, are good.

Born in Tāmaki Makaurau in 1983, I’m an artist who works across an interdisciplinary range of media from painting and photography to sculpture and installation. In 2018 I gained a Practice-led Ph.D. from AUT, researching Memory Markers in the Landscape in Aotearoa New Zealand. I am interested in ideas of time, memory, and place. My practice draws reference to poetry, language, the environment, and memorials within the New Zealand landscape and cultural history.

I live in Waitara with my wife and our dog and when not in my studio I work at Te Kura Matatini o Taranaki - Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki and continue to exhibit nationally and internationally.

Instagram @the_elliot_collins