Coffin packs a serious message

JOHN BISSET/Timaru Herald

END OF THE ROAD: Mountainview High School year 12 students check out the coffin made from cigarette packets by Christeena MacDonald, which is on show in Aoraki Polytechnic's Onsite art exhibition.

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A work in Aoraki Polytechnic's Onsite art exhibition is bringing home the message that cigarettes are deadly.

The full-sized coffin, made out of about 400 cigarette packets, has been made by Christeena MacDonald, a diploma in visual art and design level 5 student.

The idea for the coffin has come from Ms MacDonald's own experiences.

Her father died of cancer earlier this year and several of his family members had also died of lung cancer. She said smoking was something her father had always enjoyed but didn't make the connection of what it was doing to his health.

"It hurried along his death, and took him there sooner.

"The coffin is like his transport."

Ms MacDonald said the words on the packets, like Holiday and Freedom, implied one thing but actually said something else altogether.

While she didn't make the piece for World Smokefree Day its message has coincided with the day, held each year on May 31. This year's theme is giving quitting a go.

- © Fairfax NZ News