Hym(e)nals

Hym(e)nals is a new multi-channel immersive film and sound work by Greek-Australian sonic and visual artist Tina Stefanou, featuring six teenage female horse riders and their elderly equine companions. Premiering on the week of the Melbourne Cup from Thursday 3rd November till Saturday 5th November, the work will be projected on the Norla Dome ceiling at Mission To Seafarers, accompanied with live musical performances each night. Hym(e)nals both mimics and challenges themes in religious paintings, speaking to local ecologies and communities as well as current global events of female solidarity and equality, collective strength, and interspecies communication.

Stefanou has performed and exhibited locally and internationally, and was the recipient of the 2020 Schenberg Arts Fellowship amongst many others. Her art carefully pushes sonic and visual art practice into places that do not usually host it, finding threads that examine and affirm the diversity, absurdity and beauty of living communities and systems. Recently, Stefanou has spent the last nine years working with retired horses and in the last few years she has been working with teenage girls at ‘pony club’ to build confidence with their voices. Pony clubs are often dismissed as a white, middle-class and feminine cliché, yet the ability of girls and young women to communicate and build trust with such large creatures as horses is awe inspiring. They spend years of dedicated time learning the language and movement of these ancient, more-than-human companions, many of the girls coming to horse riding through equine therapy.

Hym(e)nals speaks to multispecies neurodiverse ways of being and loving. Opening on the week of the Melbourne Cup, this work provides an imaginative relief to the competitive sport. Musical performances opening each of the nights include Melbourne songwriter and performer Lisa Salvo (On Diamond) and multi-instrumentalist and composer Genevieve Fry, Melbourne vocal ensemble Khyaal, and local voice and bass duo Deborah Kayser and Nick Tsiavos. Moving beyond the affluent and problematic cultures around the show pony or heroic thoroughbred, Tina Stefanou draws on mythologies of the workhorse, agriculture, song, and coming-of-age to invite reflections on survival, kinship, and voice.


Hym(e)nals debuts Thursday 3rd - Saturday 5th November at Mission To Seafarers, Docklands. Tickets