Joanna Wright, Taloi Havini

The Best Tools I Have Are My Eyes

Taloi Havini, Installation view at Mostyn, Artes Mundi 10, 2023-24. Photography: Stuart Whipps

Overview

Processes of extraction and exploitation are as ubiquitous in the systems and technologies which produce our visual culture as they are in the machinery of war and colonisation. This idea recurs in the presentations of the Artes Mundi 10 artists, and nowhere moreso than in the work of Taloi Havini, the recently announced winner of the AM10 prize. As the final instalment of the AM10 journal, we’re proud to present a text by Ynys Môn-based documentary filmmaker and researcher Joanna Wright, for which she initiated a dialogue with Havini, having been struck by her work at Mostyn, a gallery Joanna grew up going to. Their conversation is far-reaching, illuminating both artists’ long-term engagements with ethically explosive questions of seeing and being seen – visualising and being visualised – and both the difficulty and necessity of maintaining your own communities, artistic and otherwise, when the paths presented are so often insufficient.

Authors

Joanna Wright
Joanna Wright is a documentary maker, artist and creative producer based in Llanedwen, Ynys Môn. She is currently an artist research fellow at MIT Open Documentary Lab Co-Creation Studio.
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Taloi Havini
Taloi Havini (b 1981, Nakas Tribe, Hakö people) was born in Arawa, Autonomous Region of Bougainville and is currently based in Brisbane, Australia.Her research practice is informed by her matrilineal ties to her land and communities in Bougainville. This manifests in works created using a range of media, including photography, audio and video, sculpture, immersive installation and print.She curates and collaborates across multi-art platforms using archives, working with communities, and developing commissions locally and internationally. Knowledge – production, transmission, inheritance, mapping and representation – are central themes in Havini’s work where she examines these in relation to land, architecture and place. Havini holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the Canberra School of Art, Australian National University. Solo exhibitions include “The Soul Expanding Ocean #1: Taloi Havini” (curated by Chus Martínez), Ocean Space, Campo San Lorenzo, Venice, a commission for the Venice Biennale of Architecture (2021); “Reclamation”, Artspace, Sydney (2020); “Habitat”, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2017). She has participated in numerous group exhibitions including “In the Heart of Another Country”, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2022); 17th Istanbul Biennial (2022); “A beast, a god, and a line”, Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway (2020); Sharjah Biennial 13, UAE (2017); 3rd Aichi Triennial, Nagoya (2016); and 8th & 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2015 and 2018). 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; and KADIST, San Francisco, CA, USA.Taloi Havini is represented by Silverlens, Manila and New York.
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Taloi Havini