Taloi Havini’s first sonic work dunks the listener in an ocean of sound

At Ocean Space in Venice, Papua New Guinea-born artist Taloi Havini explores ecological conservation and the indigenous history of Oceania in her first sound work, coinciding with the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale

Taloi Havini, Answer to the Call, 2021. Exhibition view 'The Soul Expanding Ocean #1: Taloi Havini', Ocean Space, Venice
Taloi Havini, Answer to the Call, 2021. Exhibition view 'The Soul Expanding Ocean #1: Taloi Havini', Ocean Space, Venice. Commissioned by TBA21–Academy and co-produced with Schmidt Ocean Institute, co-founded by Wendy Schmidt.
(Image credit: gerdastudio)

Answer to the Call is Taloi Havini’s first sound work. As an artist who usually works with film, installation and photography, this is a departure, but one that is attuned to the crux of her artistic practice. 

In this site-specific installation staged at Ocean Space, and coinciding with the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale, Havini looks at the indigenous history of Oceania. She draws attention to sites and practices suppressed by the process of first contact and colonisation, explores the good and the bad of what that brought with it. 

These are themes that have long shaped the artist’s work. Iterations of her piece Habitat, which looks at our relationship with the ocean and its changing ecosystems, conflict, the politics of location and Indigenous knowledge systems, were exhibited at the Palais de Tokyo in 2017, and at Artspace in Sydney in 2020. ‘I have a practice based on making immersive experiences [that are] site-specific and draw on ideas of inheritance, intergenerational knowledge, and the way we are connected to environments and habitats,’ she explains.

Large artwork exhibited in a show

(Image credit: Zan Wimberley)

Water habitat

Top: Taloi Havini, Habitat, 2018-2019 HD, colour, black & white, 5.1 surround sound, 10:33 mins, exhibited at Artspace, Sydney.  Above: Still from Habitat

(Image credit: Zan Wimberley)

Her new 22-channel work Answer to the Call has been made and staged to interact with the architecture of the Chiesa di San Lorenzo, a ninth-century church in Venice, Italy, home to TBA21-Academy’s Ocean Space. The work combines the hydrophone recordings of sonic mapping taken while aboard a research vessel called Falkor, ocean travelling chants, and an instrumental composition by musician Ben Hakalitz, who, like Havini, hails from Bougainville, Papua New Guinea.

Havini was aboard Falkor for three weeks, as part of the Schmidt Ocean Institute artist-at-sea programme, when inspiration for Answer the Call struck. The vessel was exploring the conservation and mapping of the Australian Great Barrier Reef. Havini realised that the scientific techniques she witnessed during her residency bore similarities to traditional Bougainville practices. 

Photograph of woman with protective head gear

Taloi Havini on the R/V Falkor during her residency with the Artist-At-Sea Program, Great Barrier Sea, December 2020. 'The Soul Expanding Ocean #1: Taloi Havini' is commissioned by TBA21–Academy and co-produced with Schmidt Ocean Institute, co-founded by Wendy Schmidt.

(Image credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute)

The resulting work combines traditional indigenous and contemporary scientific methods to create an experience that almost holds the listener in sound. Based on call and response, the audio collage wraps listeners in a mixture of pan pipes, drumming and underwater field recordings, built on a foundation of winds that vibrate through the central platform. Standing at the centre of this aquamarine platform is both meditative and awakening as the physicality of the wind and sonar combines with the recordings layered over it. 

‘This was made specifically for Ocean Space; the architecture of the space is kind of awe-inspiring in terms of scale and the human body experience, much like the ocean’s expanse and depth,’ explains the artist.   

Multi-beam mapping of sea floor

(Image credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute)

Multi-beam mapping of sea floor

Top and above: Multi-beam mapping uses sound to create an image and map of the seafloor. These images were created during Taloi’s Havini residency with the Artist-At-Sea Program, Great Barrier Sea, December 2020. 'The Soul Expanding Ocean #1: Taloi Havini' is commissioned by TBA21–Academy and co-produced with Schmidt Ocean Institute, co-founded by Wendy Schmidt.

(Image credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute)

The work is amplified by the acoustics of Chiesa di San Lorenzo, facilitating the deep listening exercise intended by the work. As the sound intensifies, along with its meditative quality, Answer to the Call invites its  audience to contemplate the dialogue between science and art, the traditional and the contemporary.

‘Within the sonic installation are textures of all kinds of sounds that relate to activities that take you on a journey across the oceans and below sea-level, right down to the twilight zone, and then back up into the atmosphere – it's all about the interconnectedness of ocean/life systems,’ Havini explains.

Answer to the Call is part of Havini’s six-month collaboration with collection and academy TBA21, titled ‘The Soul Expanding Ocean #1: Taloi Havini’. The project, which highlights the need to protect and conserve the world’s oceans, is co-produced with non-profit research organisation Schmidt Ocean Institute.

Ocean space art display

(Image credit: gerdastudio)

Taloi Havini, Answer to the Call, 2021. Exhibition view The Soul Expanding Ocean #1: Taloi Havini, Ocean Space, Venice

Taloi Havini, Answer to the Call, 2021. Exhibition view 'The Soul Expanding Ocean #1: Taloi Havini', Ocean Space, Venice. Commissioned by TBA21– Academy and co-produced with Schmidt Ocean Institute, co-founded by Wendy Schmidt.

(Image credit: gerdastudio)

INFORMATION

Taloi Havini, Answer to the Call in ‘The Soul Expanding Ocean #1: Taloi Havini', is on view until 17 October 2021 at Ocean Space, Venice, ocean-space.org

ADDRESS

Campo S. Lorenzo, 5069
30122 Venezia 

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Amah-Rose Abrams is a British writer, editor and broadcaster covering arts and culture based in London. In her decade plus career she has covered and broken arts stories all over the world and has interviewed artists including Marina Abramovic, Nan Goldin, Ai Weiwei, Lubaina Himid and Herzog & de Meuron. She has also worked in content strategy and production.