Join curator Hope Wilson for a walk-through of 'Splash Club', a solo exhibition of new artwork developed during Emily Hartley-Skudder's time as the Frances Hodgkins Fellow in 2023.

In ‘Splash Club’, Emily Hartley-Skudder works across installation, readymade sculpture, and painting to set the stage for an exhibition that both celebrates and critiques cleanliness and beauty rituals in camp luxury. Unveiling her clamshell-themed stockpile, she offers up a playful femme antidote to relic-like Gentlemen’s Clubs.

In this project, Hartley-Skudder’s processes of selection and collection extend beyond her usual found objects, to existing artworks. Assuming the roles of artist and curator, she positions new paintings from her time as the 2023 Frances Hodgkins Fellow alongside artworks from collections across Aotearoa. When viewed en masse, these works by other artists communicate patterns of preoccupation within beauty standards and Western art history which privilege very particular ideals about cleanliness and hygiene in relation to gender, race, and class.

'Splash Club' runs Saturday, 9 March-Saturday, 18 May 2024

Hocken Gallery open hours are Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm