Emily Hartley-Skudder

"If still lifes are often about the transience of life and pleasure, Hartley-Skudder's are a vision of plastic immortality, where the female body is trapped within the machine of resplendent consumption." Amy Weng, Circuit

Emily Hartley-Skudder (born 1988, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland) is a contemporary artist living in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.

Emily is known for her paintings, assemblages and site-specific installations which delve into the artificial ordinary and faux domestic, think life-sized dollhouses, carpeted bathrooms, and discoloured, fake fruit.

Her process begins with the somewhat obsessive collecting of found objects and materials. The search for miniatures, toys and plastic receptacles has expanded into bathroom ceramics and snake-oil hygiene tools. Emily photographs her arrangements and works them up into detailed oil paintings, often returning to details with the same patience a marathon runner gives to training. When exhibited, these works often find a home in the showroom-esque installations she constructs.

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