2018 – Emily Hartley-Skudder, installation artist
Emily Hartley-Skudder was selected as the 2018 recipient of the WARE exchange programme to Xiamen, South China. She stayed at the Chinese European Arts Centre (CEAC) in the heart of Xiamen for three months.
Emily gained a Bachelor of Fine Arts (First Class Honours) from the University of Canterbury in 2012 and has since gone on to exhibit widely in group and solo shows across New Zealand.
Emily was selected based on the strength of her application and practice to date. She proposed a thoughtful and intriguing series of site specific projects that demonstrated a high degree of attention to detail and of understanding of the context, that is Xiamen – the city became her home for three months.
While in Xiamen Emily developed a new body of work, Pussy Bow, that responded directly to her experiences while resident. This work was exhibited at CEAC Gallery in Xiamen and iterations will be exhibited during 2020 in Wellington. Other projects heavily influenced by her time in China have been exhibited this year (2019) at Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland and Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch. Emily's original proposed project for WARE, Fancy Foods, which involved commissioning painters in Xiamen to reproduce her photographs, is at the Suter Art Gallery in Nelson from 19 October to 9 February, 2020.
Hartley-Skudder has written various articles about her residency experiences, including an essay entitled The Power of the Pussy-Bow: Fighting back against rape art.