Lizamore & Associates | The Paradise of Normality by Tamara Osso

The Paradise of Normality is a deeply personal, autobiographical rendering of healing post-trauma. Osso's son suffered from fatal focal seizures resulting in her family living in a constant state of emergency. In 2019 he underwent successful brain surgery and her family found personal reprieve at a time of extreme crisis during the covid pandemic. The body of work speaks about the process of “release” from the impending prospect of trauma or even death.

“The paintings are a celebratory rendering of our “exhale” as a family. They dialogue with everyday rituals which include walking, playing, sitting, painting and watching. They reflect on routine; that it can be consistently repeated instead of interrupted. This concept became the performance for which the paintings began to hold space.”

Her paintings are big and their visceral surface embodies the notion of presence. They display all living things and they scrutinise those relationships in terms of repetition and construction. Osso has emphasised the tempos, the rituals and the rhythms which were performed over time by the plants, animals and people within the boundaries of home. Osso examines the consistency of ritual which she describes as a dynamic dance between our experience of self and space. Ritual creates routine and structure which like a ballet class become rhythmic and lull us into a sense of calm. In this way Osso’s process details an aware- ness of the body in space; movement a central theme.

“I understand choreography as a way of being that petrifies a space - a way of remembering something that is living because I believe that experience retains power.”

Osso uses the ritual of painting to formalise her lived experiences because she believes that the slow, process allows time for the painter to digest the experience and translate it into visual form. “I believe this to be the medium's magical healing power and why it became adopted as the perfect mode to pro- cess my trauma.”

As both a dancer and an artist Osso revels in such an adaptive process like painting and the work seeks to translate moments of physical interaction; be they joyous, difficult, or mundane. Osso's interest is in how these moments can be suspended, extended, or revisited. These moments, therefore, confirm the notion that personal, physical intimacy is valuable.
Gratitude and an overarching feeling of relief and happiness permeate these works. They emphasise the simple pleasures of being alive – of feeling lucky to be healthy. Their consistent narrative acknowledges the concept of repair; how to? should you? When to? Can you? Are you even allowed to take the time ?

Osso’s artworks grapple with the connection between the immediacy of performance and the physicality of painting. She explores movement, the tempo of ritual and the rhythms of everyday life as they present in Johannesburg, South Africa. In her career, she excelled as a ballet and contemporary dancer and per- formed with numerous local and international theatre companies before pursuing her studies in the visual arts field. Johannesburg is a city of many limitations (especially for women and people with disabilities) and Osso’s obsession with the dynamism of movement and mark, within such limitations, became empha- sised after her son was diagnosed with epilepsy and cerebral palsy. In 2014 she completed her MAFA degree (with distinction) at WITS University and later, her PGCE certificate (with distinction) in education. She is currently running a teaching studio and making art.