At pretty much the exact time Hailey Atkins developed an interest in art, she also became a construction specialist. Her love for creating art and an interest in designing homes blossomed simultaneously, and Hailey went straight into drafting and building design from high school. 

Despite loving that job, the creative impulse would not subside, and Hailey ended up studying a Bachelor of Fine Art at Queensland College of Art while she continued her work at a roofing company. ‘Initially I had planned to major in printmaking, but I ended up thriving in the sculpture department where the possibilities seemed endless,’ she says. ‘The boundaries are very flimsy and so there’s a lot of room to play.’

Hailey uses industrial materials such as concrete, plaster, joint finisher, timber, steel to create her structures, as well everyday materials like paper and textiles or discarded construction debris. These are mulched, squeezed and