A cinematic late-afternoon light pours through the corner window of Chris Elliott’s vest-pocket shed. The miscellany of collected artefacts, fabric, and vehicular memorabilia conjures up a neat yet cluttered bazaar in some exotic foreign land rather than an active workshop on the fringe of Auckland City. This concrete single garage is a celebration of creativity and productivity. Swinging a cat – or, for that matter, a hammer – might seem problematic in such confines but, when it comes to fulfilling a wide array of job briefs and cross-disciplinary commissions, Chris somehow makes things come together.
It is not size that counts
The project foremost on Chris’s mind is the one taking up most of the space: the restoration and electrification of a 1962 Fiat 500 Bambina – his city car.
“I like little cars,” Chris says proudly. “My car was a Fiat 500, because I couldn’t get a Citroen 2CV. My second car was a Renault 4 because it was a bit like a 2CV. Then, by the time I was 21, I had two 500s. One I bought off a dentist. The previous five owners of that had all been dentists.”
As far as his own professional experiences
