An Artist Responds

An Artist Responds is about anxiety, both personal anxiety and the larger collective anxiety we have experienced over the past 2 years. It’s now very hard to ignore that we are in some sort of climate shift. The horrible fact is that the “once in a hundred-year event” is now the “new normal”. As of March of 2022 the north east of NSW and south eastern Queensland are facing billion dollar clean ups as the result of floods that were hitherto “unprecedented”. There is land in southern NSW that is yet to regrow from the bushfires only 24 months earlier. This is the climate in which Tamara is making her work; creating in a time of seismic change and devastation. Our film documents her practice and intimate personal reflections against the backdrop of these global and deeply personal challenges. We’ll be there to show that hope is alive and well, that art and beauty must and will survive and that maybe the quiet moments of observation and shared reflection can help us all in some small way.

Our film aims to start a discussion around solistalgia, and the role art can play in the healing of individuals and communities. Solistalgia describes a form of existential distress caused by environmental change. We will inspire discussion about how art can inform perspectives in a rapidly changing world. There is power in beauty, in keeping the gaze and asking the big questions, quietly; talking vs shouting, listening vs arguing and embracing the consequences of our collective actions.

We are constantly being reminded that mindfulness is important and that we should take time to look inwards and settle. This film aims for that in a feature format; a meditation on the here and now. We often speak of the young and the world we are leaving them, and we should; but here we are aiming to remind a generation that may have become complacent, a generation that is lost in raising children, looking after their parents, or just trying to keep their heads above water, that in all this chaos it is possible, even necessary, to take a moment for yourself. Our film wants to be that moment. An experience; one of quiet reflection itself. The filmmakers are in discussion with Tamara’s and her networks of supporting galleries around securing a biennial pop-up event, exhibiting new and emerging fine art practitioners’ work (with a focus on diverse, underrepresented voices and survivors of trauma) around the theme of mental and emotional health through an engagement with art and nature.

Good Socks has a relationship with multi award winning animation studio Supernaut, who won plaudits for their work on Ian Darling’s award-winning film The Final Quarter. Tamara’s standing in the art world provides unique access opportunities for complementary exhibitions and re-cuts to be played in some of the most prestigious gallery spaces in the country and beyond. Aurora Films brings several longstanding partnerships to the project in the form of end-to-end production facilities/services provider Conti Bros. Films, visual effects and animation via Cannes Golden Lion award-winning post-facility Heckler, ANZ distribution services via Transmission, Bonsai and Galloping Entertainment; and an established track record of providing acclaimed factual fine-arts based programming to the ABC. The film is also assisted by the highly credentialed expertise of critic and commentator Fenella Kernebone.

We hope to prompt focussed, facilitated and industry supported discussion around mental health and the role that art-making plays in recovery. “Art therapy” has, at times been dismissed by the mainstream media. Here, we show how making and creating arts is as much about the journey to recovery as the finished product. We hope to engender audience with a positive sense of self-worth in their art-making practice; to provide opportunities for audiences to further engage with their own local arts centres and community groups; to empower viewers to embrace art as a practice and outlet for healing, and embrace engagement with nature as a conduit for beneficial artistic practice, as well as mental and emotional well-being.