Fremantle Biennale: Kastoms performance with Taloi Havini, Ben Hakalitz & Mario Celestino

Kastoms is a new iteration of Taloi Havini’s Answer to the Call, an immersive twenty-two speaker installation, composed in dialogue with contemporary arts practice, scientific investigation and customary wisdom.

Originally created after her residency onboard the R/V Falkor (Schmidt Ocean Institute) and premiered with the TBA21-Academy at Ocean Space, Venice (2021), this significant work is now re-imagined in Australia for the first time, resounding in a series of cycles specifically for the Old Customs House in Fremantle.

An island platform will lie at the centre, its shape and blue tones will evoke the depth and expanse of our understanding of Oceania from the viewpoint of the artists homeland, the island of Buka, Bougainville. Listeners will be absorbed into a meditative and gradual evolving soundtrack, designed by Hayley Forward. Hydrophone recordings of sea floor sonar mapping are layered with ocean chants and Indigenous instruments composed by musician’s Ben Hakalitz and Mario Celestino. Traversing beyond a scientific lens, Kastoms utilises an ancient call and response method as an invitation for all to enter a temporal space created for deep-listening and relating.

Like the ocean, Kastoms is a work of sensory depth, ancient dialogues and cultural contemporary resonance. Alongside the installation, Kastoms will include an intimate live performance and in-conversation between Taloi Havini and collaborating musicians Ben Hakalitz and Mario Celestino.

Traditional Composition & Instruments: Ben Hakalitz, Mario Celestino, Past Hakö elders chants
Composition & Sound Design: Hayley Forward
Sound Engineer: Felix Abrahams
Sound Mixing: Jeremy Turner
Producer: Angela Duffy
Originally commissioned by the TBA-21 Academy at Ocean Space, Venice, 2021.