Taloi Havini (Nakas Tribe, Hakö people) was born in Arawa, Autonomous Region of Bougainville and is currently based in Brisbane, Australia. Taloi employs a research practice informed by her matrilineal ties to her land and communities in Bougainville. This manifests in artworks using a range of media including archives, large-scale immersive installations, moving image, sound, sculpture and print. Knowledge – production, transmission, mapping, and representation are core themes across her practice where she examines these in relation to architecture and place.  

Havini holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) from the Canberra School of Art, Australian National University. She has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions and has exhibited in the 17th Istanbul Biennale, der TANK gallery, Institut Kunst, Basel, Switzerland, 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 the Auckland Art Gallery, 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.

Banner image courtesy of Artspace. Portrait of the artist by Zan Wimberley, courtesy of Artspace, Sydney.

The Habitat series are multi-channel video installations exploring intersections of history, the environment and nation-building within the matrilineal social structures of her birthplace, the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. Havini’s Habitat series is an ongoing investigation exploring the legacy of resource extraction and Australia’s fraught relationship in the Pacific.

Habitat: Konawiru, 2016 is a single-channel 16:9, HD, colour, sound, 3:43

Habitat, 2017 is a three-channel, 16:9, HD, colour, 5.1 surround sound, 10:40 mins digital video installation and was originally commissioned for The National by the Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney), adapted for her Pavillon Neuflize OBC residency solo exhibition, Palais de Tokyo (Paris) in 2017.

Habitat, 2018 - 2019 HD, colour, black & white, 5.1 surround sound, 10:33 mins
Presented as part of the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial, Women’s Wealth project and exhibition, supported by The Australia Council for the Arts. Archival footage was sourced from the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), including footage from personal family archives, Moses Havini and Marilyn Taleo Hatukul Havini.