Ellie Waters is a British born artist based between Aotearoa, New Zealand and Northern England. She studied Fine Arts at The University of Canterbury (NZ), graduating with a Post Graduate Diploma in Photography, in 2021. With her own history of emigration, through her work she explores notions of home, belonging and how we relate to the lands which we inhabit. She is currently associated with the Ebor Studio group, Greater Manchester (UK) where she is working on various long-term, social documentary projects.
'Divorce-19': Dad was the 49th person in New Zealand to test positive for Covid- 19, kick starting my six-week crash course on how to live with (tolerate) your parents whilst infected with a potentially deadly virus. If I were to sum up 2020 in one word it would be ‘frantic’ or ‘cheese-on-toast’. It was treacherous, scary and overall slow but for me it was also precious. It was a period of time I otherwise would not have spent with my hilarious - and at times highly agitating - parents. 'Divorce-19' is my somewhat lockdown diary, funny at times and slightly triggering at others. I hope by sharing our story I can contribute to the wider conversation of ‘lockdown’ and how that looked and felt for different people. Which, in this case was one confirmed positive, two probable's and a dog that had no choice but to be there.