Tina Havelock Stevens is an Australian multi disciplinary artist known for her drumming, documentaries, and video works. She often combines improvised live music performances with striking locations that explore the spirituality of place.

Music

Havelock Stevens played drums in a number of Australian

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

rock bands, notably Plug Uglies, with whom she recorded the EPs ''Knock Me Your Lobes'' (1989) and ''Johnny Panic'' (1990). and The Titanics with whom she recorded the albums ''Love is the Devil'' (2000) and ''Size Isn't Everything'' (2000). She also played with Chicks on Speed and Crow. She co-founded the largely instrumental ensemble The Mumps, who featured on

Triple J unearthed Triple J Unearthed is an Australian digital radio station and online music discovery platform. It is a sister station of Triple J, owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Unearthed began in 1995 as a regional talent competition open to ...

and with whom she recorded the EP ''I Wish I was You'' (2018).

Art

In 2017 Havelock Stevens won the regional Fisher's Ghost Art Award from Campbelltown City Council and came to national attention the following year when she won the 65th

Blake Prize The Blake Prize, formerly the Blake Prize for Religious Art, is an List of Australian art awards, Australian art prize awarded for art that explores spirituality. Since the inaugural prize in 1951, the prize was awarded annually from 1951 to 2 ...

for work exploring spirituality, with her video work 'Giant Rock'. The video was made at

Landers, California Landers is an unincorporated community in the High Desert region of the Mojave Desert, in San Bernardino County, California. Landers' population, as of 2017, is 2,982 people. Its residents are sometimes referred to as "Landroids"—an allusio ...

in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

and features her drumming before

Giant Rock Giant Rock is a large freestanding boulder in the Mojave Desert near Landers, California, and the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms covering of ground. Giant Rock is the largest freestanding boulder in North America and i ...

one of the largest freestanding boulders in the world; a site she described as a "spiritual vortex". That same year she travelled to the Philippines to drum on a river to make her work 'Beats of Darkness' for the Manila Biennale, Philippines. Part of that work was reconfigured in her dual channel work 'The Rapids' exhibited in The National 2019: New Australian Art at the

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), formerly the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, is located on George Street, Sydney, George Street in The Rocks, Sydney, The Rocks neighbourhood of Sydney. The museum is housed in the Stripped Cl ...

. In 2020 she exhibited in 'Afterglow' at the

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

Triennale, Japan. In 2022 she has been commissioned to produce a work for the inaugural exhibition at the new Bundanon museum built at the former home of Australian artist

Arthur Boyd Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd (24 July 1920 – 24 April 1999) was a leading Australian painter of the middle to late 20th century. Boyd's work ranges from impressionist renderings of Australian landscape to starkly expressionist figuration, ...

in Shoalhaven, New South Wales. Within Australia, she has also been exhibited by

Canberra Museum and Gallery Canberra Museum and Gallery is an art gallery and museum in Canberra, the capital of Australia. It is located in Civic Square, on London Circuit, in Civic in the centre of the city. The gallery was opened on 13 February 1998. The museum house ...

, Canberra,

Museum of Old and New Art The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) is an art museum located within the Moorilla Estate, Moorilla winery on the Berriedale, Tasmania, Berriedale peninsula in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is the largest privately funded museum in the South ...

, Hobart,

Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces Gertrude Contemporary is a contemporary art complex located in Melbourne, Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian con ...

, Melbourne,

Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) is a contemporary visual and performance arts venue located in a heritage-listed building in Perth, Western Australia. History 1896–1959: Schools The building at 53 James Street, Northbridge, James ...

, Perth and

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most import ...

, Sydney.

Reviews

Art critic Elizabeth Pearce described Havelock Stevens' practice as uniting her craft as a filmmaker and musician "for the purposes of creating… something else, something greater than the sum of those parts. The opportunity, perhaps, to occupy a particular moment in time and space, that’s consonant with the history and politics of ‘occupation’, but nonetheless determined to privilege the human propensity for peace and acceptance that persists beneath all the social and historical change".

Selected work

* 'THUNDERHEAD', 2016 * 'Giant Rock', 2017 * 'The Rapids', 2018 Two channel digital video with 5.1 Sound * 'Hasta La Bella Vista Baby', 2019 Single channel HD Video with Stereo Sound * 'Holus Bolus', 2020, Gold Neon

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Havelock Stevens, Tina 1967 births Australian contemporary artists Australian musicians Living people Australian video artists Blake Prize for Religious Art winners Australian women artists Australian women musicians