Between a traumatic cliff fall and a stint in a Thai prison, Simon Sherlock has been to some dark places. Now, he\u2019s won over Wellington by spreading the love.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 7am, Friday, and not as chilly as the capital usually gets on a June morning. As commuters step out of Wellington Central station, there\u2019s a makeshift art gallery lined up along the walkway leading to Bunny Street. This exhibition is like if Banksy met your mum\u2019s Pinterest board and conceived a child while tripping on LSD \u2013 a hodgepodge of colour, crude illustrations and quotes which stop you in your tracks and invite a smile.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re the works of Simon Sherlock, whose hands are rainbow stained from the markers used to craft his creations. In a hoodie and sweats, Sherlock almost fades into the dark of the winter Wellington morning, if not for the fact his outline is emphasised by two whiteboards packed with colour on either side of him.<\/p>\n
The signs he\u2019s become world famous in Wellington for range from inspirational quotes (\u201ctoday is like you, beautiful\u201d), comedic (\u201cthat stripper doesn\u2019t love you\u201d), political (\u201cI\u2019m not old school, I am the school\u201d, alongside a photo of Winston Peters), and punny (\u201cgoosebumps\u201d, next to an illustration of geese fist-bumping). The uniformed school kids who skip past seem enchanted by the art installation in front of them. Some of the workers walking past muster up a smile and a \u201cmorning, brother\u201d. If everyone leaving the station this morning took the time to stop and talk to Sherlock, they\u2019d find his life has been just as colourful as his signs.<\/p>\n
Sporty, comedic and even sombre: Simon Sherlock\u2019s artworks capture it all.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s often mistaken for a streetie, but Sherlock has accommodation with a close friend. What prevents him from living like those across the road in the Beehive, however, is the amount of debt the 51-year-old has accumulated after living overseas and serving in a Thai prison. That, and the fact his quality of life changed dramatically when he suffered a traumatic head injury after falling off a cliff.<\/p>\n
Maybe it\u2019ll be easier if we start at the beginning. Sherlock is a Wellingtonian by birth, an Island Bay boy who grew up working in his father\u2019s \u201cshit cafe\u201d at a truck stop. In his mid 20s in the early 2000s, he crossed the ditch to pursue cheffing, and would travel back and forth before he settled in Australia as a 30-year-old in 2006. He met his ex-partner there, a Welsh woman, who returned to her home country to give birth to their daughter. He hoped his daughter would eventually live in New Zealand with him, but that didn\u2019t happen. These days, Sherlock says he\u2019s close with the 17-year-old, who still lives in Wales and whom he affectionately calls a \u201clittle shit\u201d. Asked whether he has any ambitions for the future, Sherlock\u2019s answer is simple: \u201cI don\u2019t want a big house\u2026 Just for my daughter to be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
For over a decade, Sherlock was based in Australia, because \u201cthat\u2019s where the good money is\u201d. Things were going OK for a while, and by 2018 he was working as a chef on Rottnest Island \u2013 a \u201crich person\u2019s playground\u201d off the coast of Western Australia. But a visit to The Basin, a popular beach on the island, would change his life forever after he lost his footing on a loose rock and went head-first over a cliff.<\/p>\n
You can find Simon Sherlock and his creations by Wellington Station, or along Cuba Street or Lambton Quay.<\/p>\n
He returned to work only two days after the fall. \u201cI was all right at the start, then a week later everything went pear-shaped on me,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m better now. Sometimes I\u2019ll get, like, anxiety \u2026 I used to laugh at people over things like that. Then a whack on the head, it changed everything.\u201d Small things that didn\u2019t previously bother him would now trigger his anxiety. \u201cA woman screaming used to just fucking freak me out,\u201d Sherlock says. \u201cI\u2019d just kind of disappear [into myself].\u201d<\/p>\n
Sherlock developed post-concussion syndrome and his mental health worsened. Following an admission to a hospital in Perth, he bounced from shelter to shelter before he ended up living on the streets. He spent months begging on St Georges Terrace, the main street of Perth\u2019s business district, when he realised the disgruntled workers who threw change at him probably just needed a pick-me-up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And that was the beginning of Sherlock\u2019s sign-making endeavours, an attempt to earn smiles as well as cash. After nearly two years of rough sleeping and sign writing in Perth, Sherlock revived his cheffing career with a job in the Northern Territory. That lasted a wee while, until one day, after a heavy drinking session in Darwin, he says he woke up on a plane headed to Singapore. \u201cI was like, \u2018for fuck\u2019s sake\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
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From there, Sherlock made a little bit of money and travelled to Malaysia. Then he caught the cheapest flight to Krabi in Thailand, and stayed there for six weeks. That\u2019s when things took a turn. In a dark and dramatic episode, he fell out with a local and set their bike on fire, he explains. \u201cAbout half an hour later, I was in handcuffs.\u201d He was charged with damage to property and sent to prison, where, after being convicted, he stayed for a year. While there was some initial contact with the New Zealand embassy, Sherlock is critical of what he sees as a lack of communication or support. \u201cMy passport\u2019s not worth the ink it\u2019s written on,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
All in all, \u201cthe jail was all right\u201d \u2013 he says the guards, as well as some pretty serious criminals, showed him more empathy than officials had. When he was released, Sherlock says he spent eight days in a Thai immigration detention centre, which he describes as needing \u201ccharges brought against them by the Human Rights Commission\u201d, before being deported.\u00a0<\/p>\n