As the world teeters on the brink of so many calamitous conflicts and disasters, art may be not be the first thing on everyone’s minds.
But as artists well know, it can have profound effects of the body and soul during times of crisis.
With some of us nervously sitting on the edge of our seats wondering what is next for the world, we may also be searching for ways to centre our emotions and restore our hope.
ArtsHub has asked a range of Australian artists which piece of art does just that for them in their darkest hours. From music to painting, poetry and prose – their choices show how art can shift our senses and encourage us away from despair.
Set designer Josh Taylor
Taylor says he listens to Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem “for the promise of redemption and hope”. He has performed the work himself number of times with his high school choir – “usually in St John’s Cathedral, but also in a few iconic Brisbane venues and I have learned to love so much of it,” he says.
“The shape, the transitions, the dynamics, the dramatic mood shifts and the fabulous tenor lines! Within its arcane, ritual lyric and that sheer musicality, there is a continual upward gaze.”
Poet and writer Amanda Anatasi
Anatasi names the short poem Wild Geese by Mary Oliver, saying, “This poem has the effect of releasing tension from the body and the pressure of trying from the mind.
“It speaks of the simple act of being, of effortlessness. It points to the connection between all things, an expansive love and the feeling of home.”
Actor Don Bridges
For Bridges it’s music – usually any music specifically from the pen of James Taylor that brings him solace in difficult times. “I find his poetic lyrics and gentle melodies help at stressful moments,” he tells ArtsHub.
Artistic director and choreographer Daniel Riley
ADT‘s (Australian Dance Theatre) AD Daniel Riley names a deeply personal work – cloud (2000) by Michael Riley, saying, “When the world feels heavy and difficult, I think of it and remind myself that I’m downstream of those who also had battles to face, both personally and within a broader social context.
“This [photographic] series holds a special place in my heart as it opened the door to my ongoing cultural connection to my Wiradjuri identity,” he says. “Through art, there is always a different lens [through] which to look at the world, one that is hopeful and full of strength and heart.”
Poet and author Alan Fyfe
Fyfe has chosen Allen Ginsberg’s poem Tears – a work he discovered when he was 16 years old.
“I was working in Perth and catching a bus home to Mandurah, which was an hour-and-a-half trip. I bought Ginsberg’s books Howl and Kaddish and I’d read them on the bus.
“There’s something forever about the stuff we read when we’re 16,” he says. “The poem also states that there’s a vein of goodness buried in the tragedy of humanity.
“I don’t know if I always believe that, but it’s good to have the option of believing it. It’s good to think that might be the case, and to have it said with such gorgeous conviction by someone whose poetic ghost has always gone with me.”
Visual artist Kevin Robertson
Painter Kevin Robertson, who is a long-time member of Perth/Boorloo gallery Art Collective WA, chooses three artworks that he sees every day in his house that, for him, “confer a feeling of reassurance”.
One is a self-portrait by Perth artist and fashion designer, Megan Salmon – a work she made in the 1980s. Robinson says, “[It] reminds me of the sheer brilliance the artist has achieved and gives me a sense that maybe I might be able do this too, some time.”
Another is a painting by Viola Dominello from her L’architettura series, which he says “is optically so dark that the glow on the horizon is barely readable, but it is still enough to give that feeling that some change is coming out of the murkiness of the morning”.
Finally, there is US artist R B Kitaj’s screenprint Glue Words (1967), which Robinson says he nominated “for its 1960s optimism”.
For Robinson, he sees many artists as being inherently optimistic, which in itself is a source of hope. “Artists have to keep working and producing things when there are often very few signals from the outside world that what they’re doing has real value,” he says.
“The works I have chosen seem to be actively able to speak to the present, to be alive and relevant in the moment. There is something in particular about the texture of the hand-made qualities of these artworks that plays off against the extraordinary, elevated states that they achieve.”
Playwright and writer David Burton
ArtsHub‘s Brisbane-based team member nominates an 90s movie as his go-to source of comfort in trying times. “Sublime to ridiculous: Luc Besson’s Fifth Element is riotous, action-packed, hilarious and just great filmic storytelling. The characters are all totally ridiculous and completely wonderful – played with an infectious energy by a stellar cast: Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Chris Tucker – all stunning. But it’s this manic race to defeat evil, to seek love, to use all powers at one’s disposal to find the good and the light. All in totally hot attire.”
Visual artist Deborah Kelly
Several artists ArtsHub contacted for this story signalled that, for them, the act of making art, rather than viewing or experiencing it, is the thing that gives them solace, strength and hope in tough times.
This is true for Kelly right now who reveals that “in these terrifying times” her collaborative involvement in a multidisciplinary project titled CREATION has been a major source of solace.
The artist describes the production as “an artwork in the form of a queer insurrectionary science fiction climate change religion that has manifested as visual art, choreography, sustenance, regalia, film, food and, most wonderfully, as collective choral music under the direction of composer Lex Lindsay”.
“It is so incredibly absorbing and exhausting that it doesn’t leave much time for the existential panic that [ironically] was the work’s original catalyst,” she adds.
Read: Creatives more prone to depression: myth or reality?
Actor and Burlesque Performer Moira Finucane
Green Room Living Legend Finucane has also found succour in the creation of work.
“In 2020, I was meant to return to Antarctica. That summer the fires were followed by the virus, we all locked down in the face of crisis after crisis,” she recalls. “So I got into my bathtub and created a work about hope, truth and melting ice – Rapture Bathtub. And zoomed it around the world. In fairy tales, small kindnesses and small cruelties have epic consequences, so too it is in real life. I wanted to transfuse courage and hope in dark times, so I asked people to make a penguin. Then I partnered with awesome tree planters 15 Trees and, for every penguin made, a native tree went into the ground. People in Mexico, Ireland, Denmark, the US, even Antarctica made penguins. 1188 trees were planted. Those trees will still be growing when we are gone. That gives me hope. Recently I was asked to revisit this beautiful work, so I did. You can still make a penguin, you can still plant hope. Say yes to hope!“
Playwright, screenwriter and comedian Vidya Rajan
Rajan nominates the 2024 film Kneecap, telling ArtsHub: “I’ll be honest. There’s not much art that’s felt impactful lately.
“Uplifting, escapist, comforting, beautiful – sure, but not impactful in the way that hope requires, at least for me.
“I watched the Kneecap docu-fiction film recently and felt a glimmer of something real though. It takes on the continuing impact of colonisation in the north of Ireland, but in a wildly creative and tongue in cheek way. Nothing didactic in this film. More importantly, it’s got the band’s trademark honesty about the world.
“It reminded me that silliness and mess rather than over-aesthetised solemnity is what has a chance of connecting as protest art right now. Plus, the music is f***ing great,” she says.
Curator Tian Zhang
Sydney-based Zhang nominates visual artist Luke Willis Thompson’s video work Whakamoemoeā (2024) – a piece that depicts a Māori newsreader standing in front of Te Whare Rūnanga at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2040, where she is delivering an address to mark the country’s transition into an Indigenous-led governance system.
“[The newsreader] honours the Elders and Ancestors who have been instrumental to this moment of change and outlines the new plurinational state that will provide safety and autonomy for all who live in Aotearoa, including Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents,” Zhang says.
“The work is largely inspired by ‘Matike Mai Aotearoa‘ – a document for Māori-led constitutional transformation that was produced through considerable community consultation.
“It’s hard to find hope at the moment amid a livestreamed genocide, political incompetence and all manner of depressing news; Thompson’s work provides a blueprint for a future worth fighting for.”
Visual artist Darren Tanny Tan
For Melbourne/Naarm-based Tan, it’s a photographic work by Iranian-Australian artist Hoda Afshar that, he says, “stirs up a sense of wonder and melancholic hope amid themes of displacement and longing”.
Tan’s chosen image depicts two horses standing side by side in a misty field but, thanks to a momentary trompe l’oeil effect, one of them assumes the look of a mythical unicorn.
Part of Afshar’s ongoing In The Exodus I Love you More series (2014 – present), Tan describes the work as “a quiet but pensive image that has left a lingering impression”.
Poet and critic Thuy On
ArtsHub‘s Literary and Reviews Editor Thuy On names a song as her chosen work, saying “the tune, ‘Something Changed‘, by UK band Pulp gives her hope.
“Not only is it beautiful to listen to – Jarvis Cocker’s plaintive voice melds perfectly with the strings – but the sentiments expressed are romantic, heartfelt and hopeful,” she says.
“It expresses a serendipitous moment where the universe sends you on a collision course with a random stranger, who ends up changing your life – for the better.
“I love it because every time I am feeling low and sad, it makes me think maybe I’ll meet someone who will perk me up by their sheer presence, that tomorrow is as yet an unknown entity.”
Author and playwright Claire Christian
For writer Claire Christian, “silliness is important” in tough times (hear, hear!).
Christian says that lately she’s been watching Very Important People – an improvisational comedy show that always makes her smile, while also enjoying The Great Pottery Throw Down “for comfort and joy at how skilled people are”.
… and finally actor Madeleine Swain
ArtsHub‘s Managing Editor gains comfort from the past. When it all gets too overwhelming, her virtual security blanket is to tune in to Golden Days Radio (95.7FM), listen to Fred Astaire singing ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ (which, to be honest, could well be played on Golden Days Radio) or for one big visual Oodie effect, turn on the screen and wallow in a screening of Stage Door (1937, director, Gregory La Cava), starring Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers and a heap of other glorious female stars. “We started off on the wrong foot. Let’s stay that way.”
This article was updated at 1.20pm to include the contribution from Moira Finucane and her rapturous penguins.
