Hayley was invited to the grand opening, where her art was displayed at Hobsonville Headquarters.

Her artwork won the Ernst Young Scholarship in 2023. The judge, Paul Johnston, described her work as having confident brush marks and a rich array of subject matter that forms the Cabinet of Curiosity. The painting was noted for its direct approach and a visual and technical vocabulary that includes a diverse collection of painterly mark-making and surface treatments. Additionally, the artwork’s main subject emerging from the background and a similar treatment of all elements of the painting adds to the magic of the whole.

Hayley’s Artist Statement makes connections to several contexts that help to inform her subject matter and painterly approach.

“Taxidermy never fails to amaze me. It is a symbol of human curiosity and a way to preserve nature’s beauty in its most original form. The background of the artwork features a “Cabinet of Curiosity”, that includes skeletons of prehistoric and present creatures, preserved samples of insects, vintage dolls, and unusual and eerie items such as the conjoined rabbits, as well as a blood-stained jar of eyeballs.”

The anthropomorphic aspect has an individual and personalised quality that is supported by her mature expressive and raw painting style.

In explaining her work, Hayley references Doctor Cesar A. Cruz who once said, “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”

“My artwork also makes the audience feel uncomfortable, even disturbed. My intention is for the audience to explore the wider implications of this painting, such as the ethical and moral nature of collecting such specimens and displaying dead bodies on a shelf, as if they are decoration.”