Opening // Tina Havelock Stevens: Now is a Beginning

Friday 11 April, 6-8pm

To be opened by Daniel Mudie Cunningham and Bathurst Mayor Robert Taylor
AUSLAN interpreted opening speeches (via video link)
Catering by BRAGS
Beverages by Sponsors Renzaglia Wines, Grass Parrot Vineyard, Cosmo Brewing
FREE, all welcome, RSVP essential

About the Exhibition

Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (BRAG) presents major solo exhibition, Now is a Beginning, by Tina Havelock Stevens, Guest Curated by Ann Finegan.

A gentle epic, inspired by Bathurst – yet not about Bathurst, Now is a Beginning embraces magical thinking, place(s), architectural space, where you begin, the unknowns, new narratives in a place once familiar, improvisation, social and sensory engagement. Embodying a universal experience of the shifting, contemporary ‘now’, the exhibition offers a gathering point for reflection on the past as well as the current state of play of the world, marked by political urgencies and the ruptures of unforeseen, unpredictable events.

Tina Havelock Stevens presents an existential narrative of connections over time, borne from the adrenaline of riding motorbikes as a ten-year-old on her uncle’s farm, to the metaphysical experience of packing up her late mother’s house. Zones in the gallery, swathed in saturated colour, create charged atmospheres for exploration of light installations, video/film, photography, object-based works, sculpture and sound.

Havelock Stevens has lived multiple lives: her punk-rock ethos developed early across a series of bands, including Plug Uglies and The Titanics with stints in Crow and Chicks on Speed. Currently, as drummer for art rock experimental improv music duo, derived from The Mumps, she recently opened for Kim Gordon (of Sonic Youth fame) at The Tank, Art Gallery of New South Wales. In her undergraduate years she was a student of cultural studies, and film and philosophy classes with luminaries such as Ross Gibson (University of Technology, Sydney) before another year at the Australian Film Television and Radio School, after which she made her own documentaries for television as director and cinematographer. A resilient current of empathy continues to underpin her practice. She was also a youth worker for years in urban refuges, made community television and worked with indigenous communities in Papunya, Kintore and Cape York.

More info

Image: Tina Havelock Stevens, High Fashun (still) single-channel-video with stereo sound, 2025. Camera: Jackie Wolf. Image courtesy the artist.

The project is supported by the New South Wales Government through Create NSW and by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.

Contact the host of Opening // Tina Havelock Stevens: Now is a Beginning