1981, Tribe Nakas, Hakö people

Taloi Havini’s (Nakas Tribe, Hakö people, 1981) practice considers ideas around the production and transmission of knowledge in pre- and postcolonial Melanesia. Archival research and collaboration are hallmarks of Havini’s oeuvre, her exploration of economic and industrial narratives, human rights abuse, and environmental destruction exposing deep fault lines that resonate in the present.   Havini was born in Arawa, the former capital of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in the Pacific Ocean, and relocated to Australia with her family during the Bougainville Civil War (1988–98). Her works reflect themes of exile and return, embodied experience and matrilineal ties to place. Interweaving the personal and communal, they foreground oral history, memory, storytelling, and the role of language (specifically the Hakö language).   Havini holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the Canberra School of Art, Australian National University. She has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions and has exhibited with Artspace, Sydney, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Sharjah Biennial 13, UAE, 3rd Aichi Triennial, Nagoya, 8th & 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art Queensland Art Gallery | GoMA, Brisbane, and was recently commissioned by TBA21–Academy with Schmidt Ocean Institute at Ocean Space, Campo S. Lorenzo, Venezia for her solo at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, 2021. Havini’s artwork is held in public and private collections including TBA21–Academy, Sharjah Art Foundation, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, National Gallery of Victoria, KADIST, San Francisco, CA, USA.   Source: https://12.berlinbiennale.de/artists/taloi-havini/ https://www.taloihavini.com Participated in the exhibition 'de montañas submarinas el fuego hace islas [from underwater mountains fire makes islands]', curated by Yina Jiménez Suriel, in 2022