Hayley Millar Baker

SCREENING 24/7 IN THE DPAG REAR WINDOW 

‘As the protagonist’s commanding character remains cognisant of her task, she carries herself meditatively through the all-too-well-known domestic space with confidence, acutely aware of her surroundings – physically and psychologically - openly and unafraid.’

- Hayley Millar Baker, artist statement

Tensions rising, spirits discursive, Gunditjmara and Djabwurrung lens-based artist Hayley Millar Baker presents herself as the protagonist in a domestic setting representing the human psyche, gradually accelerating towards a climactic conclusion in Nyctinasty. Finding herself in a composite space where the physical world and the spiritual realm collide, her mind and body shift as she performs acts of caring for the body and spirit after death. Nyctinasty connects the artist to the spirit world and honours female power and strength, in ways imagined and also direct.

Hayley Millar Baker addresses notions of identity and memory in her practice, her oblique storytelling methods and methodologies encourage us to embrace that the passage of identity, culture, and memory are neither linear nor fixed. Nyctinasty was commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri Canberra for the 4^th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony. Millar Baker is represented by Vivien Anderson Gallery, Naarm Melbourne and Cassandra Bird, Eora Sydney. She has a Masters of Fine Arts from RMIT University and a Masters of Teaching from the University of Melbourne. Millar Baker has completed artist residencies in Australia, Bali and Italy. Her work is held in public and private collections throughout Australia and Internationally.

Nyctinasty, shown as part of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery’s Rear Window Moving Image Programme, marks the first time Hayley Millar Baker has exhibited in Aotearoa.