Cloud Series

An Australian by birth, Marilyn Havini was adopted into her husband Moses Havini’s clan in 1970 with the traditional name of Taleo. Since that time, Marilyn has worked in oils to explore life and culture immersed within the environment of her adopted homeland. Traversing periods of conflict through to aspirations for an Independent future, Marilyn’s works provide an important document of Bougainvillean history as one tied to the land.  More recently, Marilyn’s focus has been on how to capture the spiritual dimensions of her connection to place.  

When you sit on the long open-air balcony of Marilyn’s home in Ngalkobul, on Buka Island, in Bougainville, the sky just opens out in front of you.  There are no other buildings, just a few tree-tops, the usually quiet waters of the reef and then what feels like an endless expanse of sky. As days pass, you find that you spend more and more time just sitting watching the sea and sky, becoming immersed in their daily shifts in mood and condition.  

The exhibition Clouds features paintings of these skies created between 2022 and 2025. Amongst the distinctive features of the sky in Buka is the radiant light that streams through the slow build-up of afternoon storm clouds; long sunsets, sinking like a hot ball of fire into the dark night as well as the formation of dramatic, billowing uplifts of condensed air.  

These natural phenomena inspired Marilyn to reflect on the different ways in which, as humans, we understand and position ourselves to the natural world. Accompanying each painting Marilyn pairs a text drawn from a small book about cloud formations inherited from her father – a radar physics scientist – with verses that speak to her own more spiritual engagement with the sky.  Navigating different and at times opposing philosophical understandings, Marilyn’s paintings glory in the light, colour and her own deep love of place and creation.