What would the sea have to say to us, in a conversation with humankind? That’s the question Taloi Havini's sonic sculpture "Answer to the Call" aims to explore. The artist has distilled her experience aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute research vessel, as its team mapped the seabed of the Great Barrier Reef.
The resulting artwork is installed at the TBA21-Academy in Venice, a space which interrogates the relationship between nature and culture, with a particular focus on the world’s oceanic expanses.
Taloi explains how her indigenous community in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea gave her a special link with the sea and fostered an ecological consciousness that informs her artwork.
We also talk about how the matrilineal tradition she grew up with is at odds with the colonial patriarchy she then observed in Western societies, and how it influences the way she sees the world.
