Installation shots from 'Remnants of the dead and demands on the living'

Obviously not professionally shot, but here are some installation shots for people who have asked. The Blue Mountains Cultural Centre City Gallery is a beautiful space, and the install team was fantastic. 

And behind the wall...

The exhibition finishes 15 May 2016. 

And finally, my Masters exhibition in Canberra...

Images from DEATH at Casula Powerhouse

I'm very sad to say goodbye to this exhibition, it was wonderful exhibiting alongside some fabulous artists: 

Declan Apuatimi, England Banggala, Carla Cescon, Ronnie Djanbardi, Simon Gende, Nora Holland, Richard Lewer, Thomas Munkanomi, Tony Pilakui, Samuel 'Marbuk' Poantimului, Patrick Pound, Clementine Puruntatameri, Tracy Puruntatameri, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Helen Shelley, Laurens Tan, Hayley West

Casula Powerhouse DEATH

'Death becomes child's play'

The DEATH exhibition and a little about my work has been featured in the Art section in today's SMH!

Artist Hayley West with her five-year-old daughter Ramona, who is cuddling a rabbit she stuffed herself, in their Blue Mountains home. Photo: Janie Barrett

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/death-becomes-childs-play-in-hayley-wests-art-at-casula-powerhouse-arts-centre-20150525-gh6ib1.html#ixzz3bCQmBtw6

I Remember You

On 14th March 2015 I'm participating in the Art Not Apart Festival in Canberra. Here's a little about my project, ever wanted to experience a Death Café or lie on a cooling bed?

Upstairs, I Remember You invites viewers to engage with her one-on-one. Upon entering the space you will lie down on a cooling bed. While on this death bed, you are asked to contemplate an object/s that you will leave for someone once you are dead. 

Take a selfie and post #irememberyou alongside a hashtag of your object and who it will be left to, for example:
#irememberyou #goldring #Ramona
#irememberyou #ProHartPainting #anyone

Downstairs, A Death Cafe will serve biscuits, tea and conversation about death. The objective is to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives. It's no small matter and no small movement. To date 15457 Death Cafes have popped up around the world.

Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre presents - DEATH

I'm very honoured and excited about being invited to exhibit in this show!

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Art about death typically brings to mind a certain kind of theatricality or a sombre tone, a classic still life with a skull and an extinguished candle, however the contemporary artists in this exhibition are talking about death in unexpected ways. Death has touched everyone and its effect is often life changing. It is a subject with many complexities. It is capable of stirring powerful emotions and actions, meanwhile by definition it is a simple scientific fact of life, “the cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism”.

This exhibition focuses on the ways in which we process and deal with death and mortality; practically, emotionally, physically and psychologically, rather than the moment or meaning of death. Death is an unromantic look at some of the many facets of death including a suicide pact in the suburbs of Perth, subverting a fear of death with faux enlightenment, talking to the dead through white noise and the vestigial in elation to the embodiment of memory, archive and grief.

Artists: Declan Apuatimi, England Banggala, Carla Cescon, Ronnie Djanbardi, Simon Gende, Nora Holland, Richard Lewer, Thomas Munkanomi, Tony Pilakui, Patrick Pound, Samuel ‘Marbuk’ Poantimului, Clementine Puruntatameri, Robert Puruntatameri, Tracy Puruntatameri, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Helen Shelley, Laurens Tan and myself. 

Curated by Toni Bailey.

Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, 23 May - 5 July 2015

www.casulapowerhouse.com/exhibitions/death

Stills from '1 million years' dvd

WORLD premiere of '1 million years'

Tonight! 
Friday 21st March, 6pm 
NCCA Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

1 million years

In the Screen Room at NCCA...

22 March to 19 April, 2014 (Opening: Friday 21 March 6pm)

1 million years sees the return of another former Darwin-based artist to NCCA, with NSW-based Hayley West employing sculpture and video-based performance to address persistent themes in her work relating to the 'vestigial': the embodiment of memory, archive and grief. 

NCCA's Screen Room will become a 'makeshift temple' through fabric-based sculptures and a video work in which West performs a series of acts in a prehistoric-like 'grotto' setting in the Blue Mountains where she resides. These acts broadly suggest family histories, bereavement and the vestigial. 'By contextualising the vestigial into a contemporary art framework', states West, 'there is an attempt to alleviate grief, relax impending emotional upheavals, or assist in the recovery of supressed or avoided emotions'.

Link: 1 Million Years - NCCA

Hose

Hose (2012)

le 1er festival de video performance de Marseille, France

My work CAN has been selected for the 1st Video Performance Video Festival, Marseille. 16 to 23 November 2009


Selected Artists:
Alex van Jaber, Andreas Pashias, Anna Biskov, Chris Dupuis, Eleonora Giglione, Esther Achaernando, Francisko Orallo, Francisko Gonzales Castro, Fumiko Matsuyama, Giuseppe di Bella, Hayley West, Ignacio Martin, Juan Ji, Kate Tessa Lee, Marta Moreno Munoz, Mauro Romito, Nina Lassila, Pauline Payen, Roland Wegerer, Sabrina Harri, Sergio Cruz, Sinani Gunes, Suzanne Caines, Steef van Lent, Tooraj Khamenehzadeh, Zoe Gruni, Kai-Oi Jay Yung

1st Video Performance Video Festival, Marseille France 2009

exist in 08

exist in 08 is a set of Live Art explorations, collaborations, installations, performances and forums held at five sites across Queensland. Go to the website for details - i'm in the performance dvd program -
exist in 08