Deeply researched and richly poetic, this new work by the Lisbon-based and Hobart-born artist James Newitt, HAVEN, expands Newitt’s enquiry into island utopias and conflicted situations of detachment and autonomy.

An expansive project incorporating moving image, objects, installation, sound, text and documentary material, it is informed by the real-life utopian ventures of speculative investors, pirate entrepreneurs, as well as people affected by a changing climate: those in search of new structures or forms for living.

James Newitt has a longstanding interest in ongoing relationships between individuals and communities, and the spaces between them, in which an identity is shaped.

His videos and installations have been exhibited nationally and internationally at: Lumiar Cité in Lisbon; Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart; and Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. He was a Samstag Scholar in 2012, undertaking study at Maumaus, Portugal.

Due to unexpected repairs taking place at Samstag Museum of Art, this exhibition was presented at the North Eastern Concourse at the Adelaide Railway Station for the duration of the 2023 Adelaide Festival. 

Catalogue essay by Christina Li.