Hayley Walmsley
Absurdist | Photographer | Illustrator | Weirdo
Bio: Hayley (Ngāti Kawau, Ngāti Tautahi, Ngāpuhi) is a conceptual artist and curator based in Ōtautahi (Christchurch), primarily working with photography. She holds a Master of Visual Arts from the Dunedin School of Art (2019).
Statement: I’m an absurdist by nature — sometimes my work is dead serious, other times it’s a painting of bananas on a background that’s just slightly too blue to sit still. I move between scales and tones deliberately, drawing the viewer in with either humour or intensity before leaving them somewhere less comfortable, more uncertain.
My conceptual work, while often funny on the surface, engages directly with difficult and timely social issues — displacement, identity, grief, and fragmentation. I use photography and installation to create diaristic, layered pieces that are equal parts sharp and tender. Text interrupts image. Absence becomes presence. I see photography as inherently dichotomous: an act of preservation that already admits something has passed. The missing thing is often the point.
Alongside this, a second practice evolved — one rooted in joy, colour, and catharsis. My painting and illustration work emerged as a direct response to the heaviness of the conceptual. It’s playful, soft, and occasionally ridiculous. Think bees, castles, space cats, floral riots, or a fever-dream fairytale from a 60s or 70s storybook. These pieces aren't naïve — they’re deliberate reminders that beauty, silliness, and sweetness matter too. They’ve become a kind of emotional ballast: not an escape, but a survival strategy.
I don’t separate the two practices. I live both. Artists are multi-passionate people with complicated inner worlds. Making beautiful things is part of mine.
In all of it — the serious and the silly — I try to “create dangerously.” To speak from the chest. To say something honest, even if it’s just a whisper under the breath. Even if it’s in pink.
Selected Writing & Publications
2025 — The Places We Carry, forthcoming in SCOPE: Tīrou
2025 — Migratory Patterns, forthcoming in SCOPE: Art & Design
2019 — Suzie No Friends, SCOPE: Art & Design
2019 — Hōpua Whakaata, SCOPE: Kaupapa Kāi Tahu (with E-Kare Collective)
2018 — I’m Not Dead Yet, artist book
Selected Exhibitions & Projects
2025 — Migratory Patterns (Curator & Artist), CoCA Toi Moroki, Christchurch
2024 — Memory + Mind (Group), Dunedin Community Gallery, SciFest
2024 — ISEA Everywhen (Group), Brisbane
2024 — Honohono (Group), Tūhura Otago Museum, Dunedin
2023–24 — Creative Impact Lab Ōtepoti, Tūhura Otago Museum, Dunedin
2023 — A Little More Magenta (Group), DSA Gallery, Dunedin
2020–21 — I’m Not Dead Yet (Solo), Studio One Toi Tū, Tāmaki Makaurau
2020 — Apoapo (Group), Urban Dream Brokerage, Dunedin
2019 — Suzie No Friends (Solo), DSA Gallery, Dunedin
2019 — Hōpua Whakaata (Group), The Hub, Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin
2018 — The Frontliners (Solo), Moray Gallery, Dunedin
2017 — When We Were Very Young, Graduate Exhibition (Group), Dunedin School of Art
2016 — The Real Art Show (Group), Geoff’s Studio, Albell Chambers, Dunedin
Education
2018–19 — Master of Visual Arts, Otago Polytechnic (with Merit)
2018 — Postgraduate Certificate in Visual Arts, Otago Polytechnic
2016–17 — Bachelor of Visual Arts (Photography & Electronic Arts), Otago Polytechnic
2017 — Diploma in Communication Studies, Open Polytechnic
2012 — Diploma in Digital Photography, SIT
2011 — Certificate in Te Ara Reo Māori (L2), Te Wānanga o Aotearoa














