pet ashes urns

I'm currently working on a series of pet ashes urns. 

I take op shop handmade vessels and make lids for them. This is the first one, which is more like a test to see if I could match glazing. The bird/sun is from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Donations of handmade vessels appreciated! 

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...

NORTH - WEST

Opening Wednesday 14th October, 2015

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

Copper Beech, Katoomba

My work for Portal to K-Town responded to the nautical traces found in the home (such as the porthole in the bedroom) with the tragedy of lives lost at sea.

Concrete Wreath 

Foam & plaster, 50 cm ø x 12 cm, 2015

Burial Shroud

Cotton & fish scales, 190 x 112 cm, 2014

Cemetery Wall

Digital print, 420 x 594cm, 2014

PORTAL TO K-TOWN

MAP (Modern Art Projects) presents its next exhibition in the Art & Architecture Series. 

PORTAL TO K-TOWN, is an exhibition guest curated by internationally renowned contemporary artists Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro in an art-deco house designed by Donald Thomas Esplin with Paul Sorenson garden named Copper Beech in Katoomba The Blue Mountains. 

Invited artists inhabit the building for a day and present a unique dialogue in response to the architecture and provenance of a building that eclipses earlier art deco styles and modern functionalism. 

Artists featured: Damian Dillon, Mark Gerada, Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro, Martin Kirkwood, Tobias Richardson, Joan Ross, Suzann Victor and Hayley West.

TICKETS (FREE!) MUST BE BOOKED THROUGH EVENTBRITE TO RECEIVE ADDRESS:
Eventbrite Booking Page

Saturday 25th April, 2015 

1pm - 4pm  ONE DAY ONLY!

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

le linceul (burial shroud)

The linceul is steadily growing with silvery fish scales. It's been a cathartic exercise during the sweat filled build-up like heat. I haven't returned to the beach many times, I find the dead bloated animals, roaming ghost nets and mountainess rubbish all too confronting. Waaw is my haven in front of a fan.

Something to Say

Something to Say (mum's scarf, pearls) 2014

I do have something to say...
i've been sick for two months now, green is also the strangest colour to work with.

Trying hard to get back into the studio...

'Shall' 2013 (mum's shawl, broken balloons)

... reading Heidegger, grotto dreaming, erecting walls, worrying about family, asbestos woes, dog escaping, fart machines, chickens dead, interstate visitors, Senegal plans ...

Mauve Moving Still

I've been working on this sculpture for the DVAA 30 year show. When I opened up the plastic zip lock bag that had mum's silk scarf in it, it amazingly still smelt of her, nearly 7 years after her death. I'm a bit sad to release it. The red coral is from a necklace which also belonged to her.

Burst Balloons Brooklyn

I'm feeling a bit let down by the James Turrell exhibition at the Guggenheim. I was expecting something sublime and got thousand fold noise, angry invigilators and works not experienced. The drawings were certainly wonderful - my favourite part, and true, 'Aten Reign' is beautiful, in a man-made, not natural pure spectacle kind of a way. Meanwhile, I'm collecting burst water balloons from Sunset Park playgrounds, it's a dirty job but (Tobias mostly) someone's gotta do it.

So Far + Owl

A few people have been asking about this work, so thought i'd elaborate.

'So Far' is made from the t-shirt i was wearing when i gave birth to Ramona (albeit cleaned up).
The owl is a powerful owl that Tobias taxidermied himself, and Ramona loves it. She was carrying it around for quite some time, until finally, the head lolled so awkwardly that it nearly fell off and was making me dry retch, so i hid it.

Get Us Out Of Here

Hayley West & Tobias Richardson
c3 contemporary art space: Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne, Australia
21st November – 9th December 2012

Hayley West & Tobias Richardson work apart for this project; from the Blue Mountains and Ethiopia respectively. A collaboration processed from two different everyday realities; being homebound and travelling freely. What results is an everyday account of living and working a month apart. Having recently moved from Darwin Northern Territory, West & Richardson now find their feet in an awkward terrain, living momentarily in NSW.

Art of the Nomad

The Chan Contemporary Art Space, Darwin

April 18 – May 18 2012 opening Wednesday April 18, 6pm

Image: Hayley West, 'So Far' 2012
(wedding dress from Yogyakarta/tablecloth from Paris)

Artists: Rod Moss, Sia Cox, Rupert Betheras, J9, Ben Ward, Suzi Lyon, Hayley West, Simon Cooper, Siying Zhou, Leanne Waterhouse, Henry Smith, Ian Hance, Bronwyn Wright, Bill Davies, Chips MacKinolty, Franck Gohier and Colin Holt.

Curators: Sarah Pirrie, Siying Zhou, Suzi Lyons, Leanne Waterhouse, Anna Reynolds, Chips MacKinolty and Chris Raja. 

“artists who have deliberately left a mark on the Territory as an explicit part of their practice” Chips MacKinolty

Territory Time

 

The Landlord (found photos, late mother-in-law's pillow slips)

Chan Contemporary Art Space

State Square (opp Parliament House) Darwin, Northern Territory

29 June - 24 July 2011

Artist talk: Saturday 2 July 11:30am (hear all the talks here: Territory Time Blog )

 

Artists: Rebecca Arbon, Simon Cooper, Talitha Kennedy, Adrienne Kneebone, Catherine McAvoy, Amina McConvell, Sarah Pirrie, Tobias Richardson, Suzette Wearn, Hayley West, Carole Wilson, Siying Zhou. Curated by Siying Zhou.

Territory Time brings together twelve visual artists who have resided in the Northern Territory presenting their own personal and psychic territory.

The Landlord

24 HR Art - NT Centre for Contemporary Art
The Box Set March 2007

The Landlord is a project exploring memory, memorial and the attempt to forget: A found photograph, with a deliberate ‘cut-out’ of an expelled individual, and a corresponding sculptural form mirroring the missing face.

(sculpture made from my late mother's pillow cases, photograph found in Taipei, Taiwan)

Alternative Endings

an exhibition by Hayley West & Tobias Richardson
Watch This SPACE Inc. (Alice Springs) Sept 22 – Oct 13, 2006

Alternative Endings is a culmination of works created during the 2005-06 trip to Burma, and back home in Australia. The works recontectualise materials and experiences from this country.

photos by Kieren Sanderson

click here to see the HAPPY WORLD video
a film by Tobias Richardson & Hayley West